On Monday 14 August 2006 10:41, Karl Eichwalder wrote:

Sean Wheller <sean@inwords.co.za> writes:

...

I am looking to checkout the doc sources from svn. I did an anonymous checkout on trunk from the forge, but it's empty. Did I miss something? Transcript of my checkout follows:

Sorry for the trouble.  The XML files are available as part of the RPM source packages.  Since 10.1 find them at http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/SL-10.1/inst-source/suse/src/. Download suselinux-manual_en-10.1-19.src.rpm :

    wget http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/SL-10.1/inst-source/suse/src/suse linux-manual_en-10.1-19.src.rpm

Unpack as root:

    rpm -i suselinux-manual_en-10.1-19.src.rpm

And find APPARMOR-admin_en.tar.bz2 (AppArmor Admin Guide), SLPROF-online_en.tar.bz2 (SUSE Linux Admin Guide), and SLPROF-print_en.tar.bz2 (Start-Up) containing the source files in /usr/src/packages/SOURCES/.  The graphics are packaged separately as *graphics.tar.bz2

NB. I changed http://en.opensuse.org/Documentation_Team accordingly; unfortunately, I don't know ATM what needs to be done at other locations where we might reference the XML source files.

Thanks for getting back to me. There is some logic behind distributing the sources in this way, but for collaborative development it seems rather inefficient. If forge has the SVN repo, I would have thought that this would be a perfect place for collaboration. Having to develop out of the rpm and tarbal source is a RPITA with it comes to creating patches and merging updates from everyone into the distributed working copies out there. While I have been using SuSE since version 8.0, I am new here, so please do correct me if I am wrong on this or have missed out something. probably not seeing the big picture at this point. Speaking as one of the people who formalized the Ubuntu Documentation Project docbook system in SVN. If you think it is worthwhile, perhaps I can assit with implimenting the documentation system in SVN? Thanks, -- Ask me about the Monkey. Sean Wheller Technical Author sean@inwords.co.za +27-84-854-9408 http://www.inwords.co.za

On Monday 14 August 2006 15:55, Frank Sundermeyer wrote:

...

There is some logic behind distributing the sources in this way, but for collaborative development it seems rather inefficient. If forge has the SVN repo, I would have thought that this would be a perfect place for collaboration.

Having to develop out of the rpm and tarbal source is a RPITA with it comes to creating patches and merging updates from everyone into the distributed working copies out there.

While I have been using SuSE since version 8.0, I am new here, so please do correct me if I am wrong on this or have missed out something. probably not seeing the big picture at this point.

our xml sources are the single source for documentation for all SUSE Linux / openSUSE based products (e.g. the former SUSE Linux, SUSE Linux Enterprise Server, SUSE LInux Enterprise Desktop,...).

Yup I don't see any problem with that.

So each change to the sources may have an affect on the different documentation sets we are building from this source. Therefore we need to be extra careful when merging "3rd party" contributions into our documentation.

So, we really appreciate feedback and user contributions, but need to have full control on what goes back into our sources. Therefore the "RPITA way" of accepting contributions ;-)).

Contributors do not have to have commit access to the repository. They can do anonymous checkouts of your sources and create patches that can be added to a ticket management system or send the patches directly to people within the internal team. In this way you can securely manage and ensure the integrity of any patches contributed. I am not sure how many people are on the SuSE doc team internal to the organization, but I imagine that they must always be adding to and improving the documentation, otherwise I would not see the changes in each new release. Obtaining these changes is important for contributors and I imagine yourselves as it gives you the extra input and quality control that comes from more eyeballs. Don't get me wrong, I think you guys do an excellent job. I just think the process for development could be more open and transparent, especially in light of the openSuSE community. For example: I've been looking around for a ticket tracking system containing things to work on. Places where I may start. Just something small for now. So far I have not found one, bugs I did find in bugzilla. Please don't tell me that it's a coding Doku-Wichtl :-) From here, looking inwards, it seems like there is no real guidance on how people can get started with contributing to SuSE documents. Knowing where to start by providing a list of things showing who has claimed what and what remains unclaimed, would make a world of difference. Point to this mailing list and the big list is not a big help when a person is considering getting involved with doc development. Thanks, -- Ask me about the Monkey. Sean Wheller Technical Author sean@inwords.co.za +27-84-854-9408 http://www.inwords.co.za --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse-doc+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse-doc+help@opensuse.org