[kde-guidelines] This & That

[Frans Englich]

Folks,

Some small updates.

* Some weeks ago there was a thread about a KDE Development Book, and it was 
discussed in relation to the guidelines project. Useful read:

http://lists.kde.org/?l=kde-core-devel&m=110024782913397&w=2

* I've looked into syntax coloring of code examples(mostly relevant for the 
technical references). It will either mean a dependency on Java or XSLT 2.0; 
the former has probably a better result(Kate quality, basically) and since 
the site anyway have java for FOP, it'll most likely be the best alternative. 
Technical details on request.

* It struck my mind while digging in specs that RFC 2119[1] may be used to 
clarify the language. This requires that we mean what we write, but I don't 
think that's a problem.

* I was thinking about the Docbook'ed version[2] of the old HIG[3], which 
could be pretty good for boot strapping our future work. For example: 1) it 
has the TOC/organization which Ellen suggested; 2) It is spell checked/edited 
for sanity/spec quality; and has various boring grunt work done, such as 3) 
400 table entries; and 4) inline elements.[4]

I think it's great that all such dead boring work is already done, and it 
would be nice if it was re-used, allowing us to concentrate on other things. 
If it cannot be re-used, it makes me wonder why, since much content will by 
no doubt be identical to the previous in either case. Of course is some 
sections still insane, but with the sanitized HIG in the back, we can rewrite 
the wrong sections, and extend: we don't want to do boring Docbook'ing, and 
we could proceed atomically, incrementally.

As a side note, about three months have passed since aKademy, and not much 
have happend except a couple of ranty discussions; we could boot strap 
ourselves with what for years have already been followed: throw in some glue, 
and we're already far on our way.


Cheers,

		Frans

1.
http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2119.txt

2.
http://usability.kde.org/hig/current/

3.
http://developer.kde.org/documentation/standards/kde/style/basics/index.html

4.
In other words, it's not the old-old HIG, as some have claimed.