Thoughts on how to structure the release notes...

[Jim Cornette]

Edward C. Bailey wrote:

>Hello all,
>
>    A while ago, I broached the subject of release notes quality on
>fedora-list.  and asked for feedback on ways to make the release notes
>better.  One of the subjects mentioned was to make the content more
>accessible by splitting things up a bit more, possibly by using RPM's
>package groups.
>
>    I personally liked the concept behind that idea, though I thought using
>more newbie-friendly groups might be a better choice.  Since the package
>groups used by Anaconda are a bit easier to understand, I thought it would
>be better to use the groups defined by the comps.xml file.
>
>    My plan (for Fedora Core 2 Test 2) is to structure the release notes to
>use the following list of groups.  That doesn't mean every one of these
>groups will be present in the release notes -- only that, if something
>needs to be said about a given package, that content will be put in the
>release notes, under a heading reflecting that package's group.
>
>    For example, if I need to write something about emacs, it'll appear
>under the "Emacs" heading.  On the other hand, if nothing needs to be
>written about emacs, the "Emacs" heading will not be present in the release
>notes.
>
>Here are some of the groups that are currently used in Fedora Core 2 Test
>1:
>
>Administration Tools      
>Authoring and Publishing     
>---etc
>  
>
The use of the categories from the group selection sounds like a good 
idea. Maybe a bit more compression with the categories might be better 
for a less cluttered page. Since the categories won't all need 
commenting on. It might work out using the same selections.

I would like to see an install and upgrade section. The upgrade to list 
programs removed or added, plus any additional hints on importing the 
new programs or removing the orphaned programs from the upgraded system.

On the install section. Things concerning what hardware needs special 
attention and things related to known issues concerning the current test 
or final release.

Jim