A New Look at How We Write Content for the Desktop User Guide

[Mani A]

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"Karsten 'quaid' Wade"  wrote:

>
> Agreed that there is a need for computer education for people without
> experience using computers, but are we sure that Fedora wants to work on
> that problem?
Certainly it should. ..We want a bigger user-base.
> I think I'd rather see some common, upstream documentation that handles
> that, such as from GNOME and KDE.  Then we can build from that as a
> base.

Neither of them can possibly handle distro-specific features in a
reasonable way.
More directions will only mean faster adoption and a more stable user-base.

>> 1. New user does not learn about the name of the Add/Remove Software
>> program. The first occurrence of "Add/Remove Software program" can be
>> replaced by "Add/Remove Software program (called 'Pirut')".
>
> How do they not learn about it?  Sorry, I'm not getting the initial
> point.

I think it is better if we tell the user about the underlying program
at some point.
The main reason is that, users can resolve simple issues with the
ability to launch a program from the CLI.

> In Fedora 9 and beyond, it is now PackageKit, and the main way to get it
> is through the same '''Add/Remove Software''' launcher.  Because that is
> setup to be a sort of alias or abstraction layer, I wonder if we want to
> bother naming the application that currently runs underneath it?

 To call it "Add/Remove Programs" in a GUI is certainly 'being
user-friendly'. In user guides at least, it is a good idea to speak
about the underlying program.

> For handling software updates in the Fedora 9 version of the User Guide,
> it sounds like a good idea to keep Pirut/Pup documentation.  Note they
> are a useful alternative that may have more features than came in the
> initial PackageKit implementation.

...and with a direct GUI link. That is, instead of the usual
"Launcher--> Help -->...", we can have two menu items off "Add/Remove
Program ".

>> 2. 'kicker' is the whole of the main panel. "Fedora icon in the lower
>> left corner called the Kicker" is just wrong.
>
> I've never heard of any of that before.  Is there a canonical reference?

In kde3.*, "kicker" is the whole of the main panel and a command as well.
It is 'Plasma' in kde4.*. Apart from the usual KDE documentation, you can see
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kicker_(KDE)

Best

A. Mani




-- 
A. Mani
Member, Cal. Math. Soc

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