Developers of Sympa

[address@concealed]

     Colas Nahaboo <address@concealed> recently wrote, in part:

> On the subject of documentation, I would suggest you look at
> the option of making your documentation web-based.

     To me, making the documentation available as hyper-linked web
     pages is a given in terms of a requirement, and documentation
     platform like DocBook would give that to you.

         I was about to say "like DocBook and OOoWriter" but I'm
         not so sure about that.  I tried finding out about
         creating HTML output from OpenOffice Writer but didn't
         have much luck.  It is pretty clear that OOoWriter does
         natively output PDF, however.  Can anybody who uses
         OpenOffice Writer comment about HTML output from Writer
         documents and it's quality?  (M$ Word does HTML output,
         but it is positively dreadful.)

     The problem I see with a web centric approach is that, at
     least from what I've seen so far, you can't generate really
     good paginated printed documentation.  Having precisely
     controlled pagination is important if you're going to have a
     printed version of the document with things like a table of
     contents and an index.  (But see below...)

> An easy option would be to start the documentation project on
> wikia http://www.wikia.com/ that would provide free hosting &
> support for it, supported by the famous wikipedia engine &
> community.

     It is certainly a possible model for collaboration.  But
     would this mean that documentation would need to be created
     and maintained using the text editor embedded in your web
     browser?  Web page text boxes always make me quickly long
     for a real editor.

> Moreover, the wikipedia community already know how to produce
> printed & DVD versions of a wikipedia site, if needed.

     I'd be curious about the quality of the printed version of a
     Wiki.  Of course one has to call into question if the goal
     of having documentation designed to be printed on physical
     pages is still an important requirement in today's world?

                                                    ...BC

--
+-------------------------[ address@concealed ]---+
| Bill Costa                                       |  No good
| 1 Leavitt Lane                 Voice:            |   deed...
|   CIS/Telecom -- 2nd Floor       +1-603-862-3056 |
|   University of New Hampshire                    |  Goes
| Durham, NH  03824       USA                      |   unpunished.
+---------------[ http://pubpages.unh.edu/~wfc/ ]--+