On Thu, 2004-08-19 at 21:34, Karsten Wade wrote:
On Thu, 2004-08-19 at 15:11, Paul W. Frields wrote:
As I write docs, e.g. my mirror-tutorial, I'm making stylistic decisions (i.e. self-editing). As I edit myself, I'm trying to make notes in my TODO for the eos-guide, which I hope will be incorporated in the eventual Style Guide. I'm hoping to do some major contribution to that guide, especially after having XML coded Strunk's book recently.
If you notice a stylistic decision that you are making consciously as you write, whether you think it is glaringly obvious or not, please feel free to send me a note about it -- off-list please, since I'll have the TODO available at my repo if you would like to look at or add to it. See http://svn.frields.org* for more information; the TODO is in the eos-guide folder.
I intend to use not just EOS, but also the GNOME Style Guidelines (which are licensed via the FDL), as source material for any work I can do on the Style Guide. If, perchance, anyone else has already started, I hope you'll consider this an offer of help. :-)
Awesome offer, both to get the Style Guidelines[1] started, and to collect style tips from all of us. I'll certainly send them. I'd also argue that your interest and activity so far should let you be the author/compiler of the Style Guidelines, at least initially. As much as the Doc Guide, the Style Guidelines will require group and editorial approval, so you will have to return to us for consensus on what you create more than any other doc you are likely to work on.
Thanks for the vote of confidence. As for passing everything back through the group, I wouldn't have it any other way! :-)
Once a style is set for a group, adherence to the style becomes the goblin of the editors. Changing even a small rule about punctuation can have big ramifications. We may want to consider that in terms of keeping our rules light, meaningful, and standardized.
[1] I'm trying the sound-out the idea of "Guidelines" instead of "Guide". This way we can include outside resources by reference as part of the guidelines, or just include sections of free sources like the GNOME Style Guide (not Guidelines, I think) in their entirety.
Right, it's GNOME Documentation Style Guide. Already showing my keen attention to detail, aren't I? ;-D
*Umm, I have mentioned that repo a few times, and I hope (Karsten, this means you especially) that *someone* will say something if my doing so is a faux pas. I am fully aware that it's not part of the FDP, nor is it intended to be. It's only a nice way for me to work on this stuff at remote locations, until the One True CVS appears, but I also wanted editors and collaborators to be able to reach it too.
I think the consensus so far is:
- We don't want outside repositories or hosted draft documents to be
seen _at_all_ as official, supported, backed-up, unrootkitted, or anything sources for FDP docs or SCM (software configuration
^^^^^ other than? (not nitpicking, just making sure I understand.)
management).
- We don't specifically recommend using personal hosting, but we do
mention it as an allowable part of the *writing* process (not the *publishing* process) for FDP.
In essence, what you are doing isn't much different than my hosting stuff at people.redhat.com. Personally, I should be keeping all my local work in local source control, anyway. :)
I think I'm on the right side of both conscience and consensus then. I'll continue to direct people to my working drafts when appropriate, with a constant notation that anything found there is a work in progress. I will make it a point to mess with the ViewCVS templates to indicate same on the site.