what next?

[Paul W. Frields]

On Wed, 2006-11-08 at 14:39 +0000, Dimitris Glezos wrote:
> Paul W. Frields wrote:
> > On Tue, 2006-11-07 at 18:46 +0000, Dimitris Glezos wrote:
> >>   http://doc-book.sourceforge.net
> >>
> >> I don't know if it's worth it (the customizing etc.), but it could be a 
> >> candidate to substitute the wiki <-> docbook conversion. It is written 
> >> in PHP, it uses xmltproc and friends, it seems to support multiple 
> >> languages, content approving, intermediate docbook-focused syntax (or 
> >> docbook). Last update was 1.5 year ago.
> > 
> > (1) PHP will, AFAICT, never be used on fedoraproject.org.  The admins
> > have spoken.
> > 
> > (2) Even if (1) were not true, I'm not excited about diverting energy
> > that would be better spent on figuring out a Plone-based solution.  Yes,
> > there are some Plone issues still being worked, like authentication, but
> > it's the future.  Let's embrace it.
> 
> I know, but Paul, do we have the resources to build a Plone front-end 
> for DocBook from scratch? Don't want to sound pessimistic here, but this 
> might require a lot of work to "do it right".

I'm out of my depth with Plone, but my understanding is that because of
the way Plone works, there's less to do here than a "from scratch"
solution.  I can't tell you why... but many other people told me that
Plone's built-in XML handling and its object model make this an
attainable goal.  I don't think it's a matter of selecting some options,
but it's probably not much more work than our SoC intern did for Moin ->
DB.

> > Let me go out on a limb here and make a suggestion:  If anyone here is
>  > interested in furthering our next publishing platform -- LEARN PLONE! 
>   > I don't mean say, "Yes, we should learn Plone."  (Or worse yet, "Plone
>  > should be learned by someone.")  I mean, "Learn Plone.  Do it.
>  > DO IT."
> 
> OK, here is an idea to get this forward: Someone with knowledge of what 
> we have, what we need and how we need it (say, you or Karsten or Bob?) 
> write down on the wiki some ideas (UML-style) of what the Plone 
> solution/worflows might need, with decreasing importance/urgency. The 
> more detailed it is, the more motivating it will be for new members of 
> the Docs and Infrastructure team to jump in and try implementing 
> something on their installation of Plone at home. The wiki page for this is:
> 
>    http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/DocsProject/PloneIssues
> 
> An example with details:
> 
> Given: Plone v.X, Python v.Y, Mercurial VCS with Docbook, ready-made 
> authentication framework from the Infrastructure project.
> 
>   * State: We are looking an HTML-rendered page of a doc's page.
>   * Priority 1: Front-end to show live-rendered Docbook HTML
>   * P2: "Edit" buttons for each Docbook file.
>   * P3: "Edit" buttons in each section/paragraph, like Wikipedia ones.
>   * P3: Ability for admins to tag changes as "live" from the web.
> 
>   * State: An editor sees a tree view of the whole Docbook titles (TOC).
>   * P1: Editors to be able to re-organize the structure: Eg. change a 
> section's parent section.
>   * P3: Ability to quickly edit the Docbook IDs of the sections (anchors).
> 
> ...etc.
> 
> I could write something like this, based on the features of the 
> `doc-book.sf.net` software, but you guys know much better what we really 
> need to get this done.

This is a good idea.  If you want to kick this off, I'm sure I and
others will contribute to it as well.

> Oh, and another issue to have in mind: If we *do* go for a 100% plone 
> solution, the tools might need a lot of work, probably too much for FC7 
> or even FC8. Correct me if I am wrong. :)

I don't think we're going to know that until someone with Plone
experience gives us a real bead on what's already available for the
platform.  We really need some good informed advice from a true expert
in that product.

-- 
Paul W. Frields, RHCE                          http://paul.frields.org/
  gpg fingerprint: 3DA6 A0AC 6D58 FEC4 0233  5906 ACDB C937 BD11 3717
       Fedora Project Board: http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Board
    Fedora Docs Project:  http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/DocsProject
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