A five-minute description of the forward path for documentation for Evergreen open source library software. (There is a much longer version of this talk that will also be uploaded.)
Presentation on how to chat with PDF using ChatGPT code interpreter
Evergreen Documentation Lightning Talk
1. The Problem, Some People, A Plan, and
a Pickaxe:
A Report-Out from the May 20, 2009
Documentation Discussion
Evergreen International Conference 2009
Karen G. Schneider, Equinox Software &
Paul Weiss, Sage Library System
3. Evergreen documentation (Current)
• Some technical documentation generated
during development processes
• Some legacy materials from PINES roll-out
• An increasing quantity of community-
generated end-user documentation
▫ Often duplicating/overlapping existing
efforts and located here, there,
everywhere
4.
5. Core docs problems
• Not integrated into development or tied
into releases
• Fuzziness between “core” and
“community” docs
• No clear, community-chosen toolset
• Lack of committed resources
• No intentional production process
• No identified leadership
7. Current Formats: The 3 Ws
• Wiki — the Dokuwiki instance
• Word — word processing documents
• Whatever — PDF, text, random formats
for movies, audio, etc.
10. Other unintended consequences…
• Software knowledge locked in developers’ brain
trust
• Much time wasted asking basic questions
• Much time wasted answering basic questions
• No unified, well-organized, “one voice”
presence
11. Previous EG documentation activities
• Mailing list (ongoing)
• Training sessions (early on)
• A proposal (Sep 07)
• Another proposal (Jan 09)
• Conifer intern (Jan – Apr 09)
• A response (May 09)
12. Resources and Opportunities
• Growing perception of need
• Critical mass
• Good communication tools
• Areas of in-house expertise
• Wide assistance/input from other
FOSS projects
14. Meet the DIGGERS!
(Documentation Implementation Group)
• Approx. 20 people met 5/20/09
• Committed to building a docs
project
• Will meet every other week
• Karen Schneider and Paul
Weiss, project coordinators
16. DIGGER Recommendations
• A single-source, open, standards-based
format for core Evergreen documentation
• DocBook XML as the core authoring
format
• Any format (Word, Wiki, Whatever) for
initial documentation contributions
17. Can you DIG it?
There’s a role, big or small, for everyone…
• Documentation production (writing,
editing, design, testing, CSS design,
infrastructure help, etc.)
• Documentation project planning
• Documentation project management
19. Toolset “highly desirables”
• Cross-platform
• Single-source, reusable content
• Support for distributed, modular
authoring
• Facilitates translation
• Standards-based
• Well-established user community
• Widely available fee-or-free publishing
tools
20. Single-Source Publishing:
One Spirit, Many Gifts
• Same source produces print, PDF, HTML,
help files
• Can tie source to versions
• Lends itself to translations
• Central control for look/feel/style
• Good for distributed labor efforts
21. DocBook
• OASIS standard
• XML schema (As of 5.0, RelaxNG, not
DTDs)
• Friendly, responsive user community
• Designed for technical documentation
• Some “Evergreen expertise” with it
• Good mix of “fee or free” tools available
25. Getting to HTML Most writers will
only see and
work with these
files.
DocBook XML File*
XSLT HTML Files
Processor
DocBook Stylesheet
*May also include CSS and a Makefile
26. Common DocBook Toolset
• DocBook-aware XML editors— XMLMind, Eclipse
(free); oXygen, $
• XSL stylesheets (free, nice selection of default sheets
on docbook.org)
• XSL and FO processors — free ones are good — see
xsltproc, Saxon, FOP
• Web design tools — for creating CSS
• Repository — for check-in, version control, release
tagging, project oversight
• Website – capable of supporting desired
functionality
27. Possible DocBook Workflow
• Documentation is written in or converted to DocBook
XML
• Writers “check in” their work to a repository
• Editors review and edit XML so it is valid and well-
formed
• Designers create CSS
• Editors select XSL stylesheets
• Editors transform XML to HTML or other formats with
an XSL processor
• Editors upload HTML (and any associated images) to a
website
28. Essential DocBook Resources
• Web: Docbook.org
• Email list: Docbook-apps
• Book: Norman Walsh, DocBook: The Definitive Guide
• Book: Robert Stayton, DocBook XSL, 4th Edition
29. DIGGER Group Commitments
• Single-source documentation
• DocBook format
• Accept content “by any means necessary”
30. DIGGER Startup Activities
• Promote the existence of DIGGERS
• Carve out roles
• Develop process plan
• Create style guide
• Address IP issues
• Build a DocBook “proof of concept” page linking out to
community documentation
• Provide samples, checklists, and heavily-annotated
templates