one more task: get to know kconfedit and let it work for you :-)

[Carlos Leonhard Woelz]

OK, now some comments on that, from someone with personal experience in
documenting oprions for different programms: me! I have tried to write
whatsthis for configuration panels, and I think my experience may apply.

On Fri, 5 Mar 2004 20:43:24 +0100, "Alexander Neundorf"
<neundorf at kde.org> said:
> Hi all,
> 
> Zack Rusin <zack at kde.org> sent the following mail:
> 
> 
> What we badly (badly) need and what would be trivial to do is have some
> people create kcfg files for applications in our CVS. No programming
> knowledge is necessary for this task.
> 
> Here's what to do:
> 1) Check out kdenonbeta/kconfedit and compile it and install. Run
> "kcfgcreator <name of the application for which you want to create kcfg
> file>".
> 2) You'll see a treeview on your left with all the configuration options
> for the given application (application has to have an already installed
> rc file for this to work). Now go through as many options as you can
> and start adding Label and Whats this entries to them.
> 3) Once you're done save the file and commit it.

This is an excellent task for developers and documenters. But don't,
please don't try to do that for many applications you do not know well in
a row, as this is an enormouus loss of energy. I did that, the
productivity was incredibly low.

To fill the labels and whatsthis (context help) you must learn a lot
about most of the application functionality. If you already know that,
this is an excellent task. If you are going to document that, it is an
excellent task. But if you go from one application to another, the gained
knowledge will not serve you to fill the next one. You will have to learn
again. I have been there.

So this is what I recommend: if you are documenting one application,
please do this task too. You probably know a lot about the app anyway,
and this won't be hard. And the other way around: if you decide to to
that for one application, check the documents for that app. They may need
update, and you can leverage your knowledge and be much more productive.
 
<snip>

> Whoever adds the most will get the honorary title of  "the KDE
> Configuration Tamer" and will be allowed to share a bag of cookies with
> me on our next conference.

Whoever does the best job updating the docs, application whatsthis _and_
configuration (general love for the application), will get a Konqui from
me. This is for KDE 3.3, KDE PIM also counts. And you don't even have to
go for the KDE conference, I will send it by mail. :)

http://lem.freibergnet.de/cgi-bin/fanshop/06-001.html?id=Cg7maUNT&mv_pc=72

Feel free to disagree.

Cheers,
-- 
  Carlos Leonhard Woelz
  carloswoelz at imap-mail.com

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