Xfce user help (aka documentation) writers needed

[Russell Dickenson]

On 2 March 2010 03:59, edoceo <code at edoceo.com> wrote:
> On Mon, Mar 1, 2010 at 3:34 AM, Russell Dickenson
> <russelldickenson at gmail.com> wrote:
>> I'm curious about whether there's been any progress on Xfce's
>> documentation? If I can spare some time I would like to contribute.
>> Should I be looking elsewhere for the work's current status?
>>
>
> Russell,
>  Here is a great place to start; we've been having some rumblings
> about documentation over the last few weeks and (I'm sure) would
> welcome the assistance.
>
>  It appears that documentation for Xfce 4.6 will be moving forward
> using a tool called Mallard (not set in stone as of yet, AFAIK).  I
> think the first step would be to take a look there - it's a straight
> forward XML system.  http://projectmallard.org/
>
>  And, you can see it first hand by looking in the git repository for
> panel here: http://git.xfce.org/xfce/xfce4-panel/tree/docs
>
> /djb

Can someone please explain why we might be following the Mallard path?
If I understand correctly - from disjointed readings of GNOME blogs
etc - the GNOME project developed Mallard specifically for integration
between documentation and Yelp. Since Xfce doesn't have Yelp, I'm
curious about why Mallard might be chosen over other methods.

I'm not anti-Mallard, but I am frustrated about the lack of
information about Mallard - especially at the project's web site. It
consists of a few examples, but very little more than that. In the
meantime the GNOME documentation team are progressing documentation
for some of the GNOME applications. I am left wondering - what
references (documentation) are they using when writing? Perhaps I am
being too demanding of a promising new project, but if you develop a
new documentation tool, surely its documentation should be the first
task completed?

My only experience to date with markup tools for documentation is with
ASCIIDOC. Without knowing the goals of Xfce's documentation I can't
comment on ASCIIDOC's suitability or not for the task.


Regards,

Russell Dickenson