installation guide

[Paul W. Frields]

On Fri, 2004-08-13 at 20:05, Tammy Fox wrote:
> On Fri, 2004-08-13 at 16:18, Karsten Wade wrote:
> > Today had to tell someone on #fedora-docs that we don't have an
> > Installation Guide, and just like many others, had to refer to RHL 9 IG
> > and other resources.
> > 
> > Are a couple of people interested in taking on this task?  It has some
> > tedium to it, but it's not that bad.  Once completed, it will need
> > regular updating, so it's a good, valuable, and stable long-term
> > project.
> > 
> > Anaconda has support for taking screenshots, iirc.  A format can be
> > borrowed from existing guides, as a starting place.
> > 
> > However ... this is a full guide, which requires more effort than a
> > shorter tutorial.  Is it even worth it to throw this idea into the
> > bucket at this stage?  If so, I'll file the bug and etc.  This should be
> > an early one to be tackled, when we are ready.
> > 
> 
> Go ahead and open a bug for it since it needs to be done.
> 
> What about creating a TOC for it on the mailing list? Then you or I can
> create empty files for it according to the TOC in CVS, and people can
> volunteer to write sections that are broken out into files. No one has
> to tackle the entire guide, and eventually it will be complete. One
> person can even be in charge of just taking screenshots with the method
> mentioned in the release notes. The RHEL IGs have been done this way in
> th past -- different writers responsible for a set of files in the IG,
> and it works great because you don't have to worry about working on the
> same files or topics.
> 
> If we plan ahead, we can even make it expandable to multiple platforms.
> We did a lot of work to make the same set of files compile for different
> arches internally, so we might as well use that knowledge here as well.
> I've even written it up already for the internal docs. I could rewrite
> it for the Fedora docs without much effort.

I meant to reply to this thread but didn't get a chance when it was
fresh. Now it is old and smelly, but we still love it just the same. :-)
Let's get this one on the road. I would like to put the Style Guide to
the side (not the same as on the back burner) while we work on this. The
Style Guide is a great thing and necessary, but not as important as
having an Installation Guide.

I think handing out chapter assignments (or alternately, taking
volunteers for chapters) would give everyone an idea of authoring skill
levels. It would also mean we could put the process doc to the test, and
beyond that, give us good ideas to address in the Style Guide.

As an aside, since I don't want it to seem like I am shirking a
responsibility, I have been reviewing the GNOME Documentation Style
Guidelines[1]. I would suggest for now that everyone who is not an
experienced technical writer (and I am including myself in that
category) pay attention to Chapters 1-4 in the GDSG. Much of the rest of
the manual, although helpful, is more geared toward documentation of
graphical interface tools, and is not as applicable in to general docs.

Has anyone already started this, beyond the outline available in CVS
now?


[1] http://developer.gnome.org/documents/style-guide/
-- 
Paul W. Frields, RHCE