I "like" Mandriva's attitude (Fwd: Re: well-known user folders, a proposal)

[Aaron J. Seigo]

On February 23, 2007, Guillaume Laurent wrote:
> On Friday 23 February 2007 19:42, Aaron J. Seigo wrote:
> > On February 23, 2007, Guillaume Laurent wrote:
> > > On Friday 23 February 2007 02:41, Aaron J. Seigo wrote:
> > > > On February 22, 2007, Guillaume Laurent wrote:

> > > it amounts to how easy it is to get the info you need. Call it
> > > user-friendliness at the documentation level :-).
> > > That's a pretty tough problem and I won't claim to have all the
> > > solutions here. Trolltech is a very good example to follow, though.
> >
> > Trolltech also has an infinitely simpler job: support one library set to
> > one type of audience.
>
> Quite true, I don't dispute this. Documenting KDE is much harde.

yep. if we can divide up the tasks however and apply consistent efforts over a 
period of time we can do it.

> > in this example, Mandriva aren't even using the Qt
> > file dialog; so tell me, how would you go about fixing the Qt dialog in a
> > similar fashion given Trolltech's good example?
>
> I don't know, my only point is that Trolltech's doc generally lets me find
> whatever I need in a matter of minutes. Except for rare cases, it's been my
> single entry point for Qt-related questions for 7 years now. Basically,
> whenever I have an interrogation about a Qt widget, I don't even have to
> think about where could the answer be, or how could I find it. I wish I
> could say the same for KDE.

this i agree with =/ techbase is an attempt to address this: one place to 
enter api (api.kde.org; which needs some love, too), high level docu for 
developers, sys admins, integrators, isv's, etc... in 2 years i really hope 
you can come back and say the same thing about kde that you just said about 
Qt.

> > > docs would be great. Then advertise it as a single entry-point for all
> > > KDE help.
> >
> > and Mandriva would actually use that? this is a serious question.
>
> I can't answer for them, but logically, if the thing lets them work faster,
> why wouldn't they ?

i don't know. it seems a lot of things that seem logical from this side don't 
occur.

> > i'm
> > looking for some hint of commitment because if we put energy into that
> > kind of solution and Mandriva (and others) continue to ignore ways of
> > working with upstream then we (upstream) have just wasted our energy,
> > which is constantly in short supply. it would screw us and it would screw
> > you as a downstream that relies on us using our time wisely to improve
> > the software you are trying to monetize.
>
> Er, seems to me you're confusing me with someone else (Laurent Montel
> perhaps). I don't work for Mandriva, I was merely offering a suggestion
> based on my own experience with tech docs. :-)

ah, dammit. last names, first names. i still would love to see this addressed 
by someone in Mandriva and the other distros we have these issues with, for 
that matter, as it's frustrating to be trying to guess at solutions in the 
dark and engaging them is so amazingly difficult it's not funny.

-- 
Aaron J. Seigo
humru othro a kohnu se
GPG Fingerprint: 8B8B 2209 0C6F 7C47 B1EA  EE75 D6B7 2EB1 A7F1 DB43

Full time KDE developer sponsored by Trolltech (http://www.trolltech.com)
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