[Live-demo] docs ready for the website

[Hamish]

Cameron wrote:
> I've spent quite a bit of time on the documentation over the last few
> days,

cheers

> and now the the documentation generation such that what is built for
> the OSGeo-Live DVD can be copied verbatim to the website.

the "editorial board" would like to have a peek at the new prototype
before unleashing it, thanks.

could you upload to http://download.osgeo.org/livedvd/doc-dev/ or similar
for review?


> Key things I've done:
> 
> * I've introduced a download tab, and download.html page,
> which describes the images we have, and points users at http://download.osgeo.org/livedvd to get the images.
> (Before we go live, we will need to remove the redirect
> currently at this page)

I disagree, http://live.osgeo.org should be the main site, and the
redirect kept in place. Updates can be fed through Alex.


> * I've simplified the main home page, which now has ~ half
> the content, and have added a screenshot to the home page.
>
> * I've created 4 new quickstarts, with screenshots:
> ** How to run OSGeo Live
> ** How to run in a VM
> ** How to install onto a hard drive
> ** How to create a USB thumb drive
> * these quickstarts are linked from the home page
> 
> Plus a number of other small tweaks here and there.
> 
> Remaining issues:
> * I've removed descriptions about Internationalisation from
> the home index.html page, but have not put it back any
> where. Ideally it should be put into a quickstart, but I've
> run out of time, and am not planning to do it. If someone
> else wants to, the original text is still here: http://live.osgeo.org

Please do not remove content either from the help docs or the wiki pages
without moving it to a versioned page somewhere else. e.g. Put USB install
docs for Ubuntu 9.10 onto a USB_Install_9.10 page, and another for 10.04,
and then use a symlink/redirect page to link to the current one. Don't
just delete it. Sure intro pages shouldn't swamp the reader, but the back-
end reference material should not be nuked either. For one thing eg Google
does not index eg archive.org or wiki history so users using a web search
to find answers will be left without help, and for another thing volunteer
contributers who have spent many hours researching and collecting solutions
and tips will have next to zero motivation or desire to do it again if
their last contribution was summarily deleted. -> If you delete it, it's
your responsibility to put it somewhere else, and link to the new place.
(aka (and fwiw this is not directed at anyone in particular just general
FOSS advice) please remember that when working on a collaborative volunteer
project that everyone else's time is worth as much to them as yours is to
you, and that everyone else is likely to be just as busy)


> * We don't have any instructions for how to install the VM
> image (because I haven't tried installing a vmware image
> into VirtualBox yet)
> * We don't have instructions on how to install into VMWare,
> or any other Virtual Machine. I'm ok with this. A quick
> start just needs to show people how to get going with one
> method, not every method.

for niche stuff just link to the wiki pages which already have this info,
no need to have everything in reSt->html.

> * It would be great if someone could align the rst fonts
> with the index.html fonts, but this doesn't need to stop us
> from going live.

(no idea about css)

two things that have gone away that I miss: 1) the prev|next buttons on
the overview pages header/footers. I found this to be a really great way
to browse through the various projects in an ad hoc fashion. Alphabetical
order is fine/preferred. 2) The search tool from the quickstarts index
page. Off in a corner, but neat to play with.



thanks,
Hamish