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Posted to xindice-dev@xml.apache.org by "Vladimir R. Bossicard" <vl...@apache.org> on 2002/11/22 23:31:29 UTC

Documentation: target audience

Hi all,

We are now starting to write the new documentation and I would like to share my
opinion about what should be our the target audience.

Xindice is an Open Source software (OSS) and I think that it is our duty to
promote the Open Source mouvement whenever possible.  But how can Xindice be of
any help?  Well, by showing how easily Xindice can run on OSS (Linux,
FreeBSD...).  Windows users won't be forgotten but they won't be the main
target.

For example, to present how to compile Xindice, I prefer to see:

   /usr/local/xml-xindice/build     [ Unix ]
   c:\xml-xindice\build.bat         [ Windows ]

rather than:

   c:\xml-xindice\build.bat         [ Windows ]
   /usr/local/xml-xindice/build     [ Unix ]

Following the same idea, screenshots and outputs should be taken from a Unix OS
using an OSS browser of course.

Or am I too radical?

-Vladimir

--
Vladimir R. Bossicard
Apache Xindice - http://xml.apache.org/xindice

Re: Documentation: target audience

Posted by Steven Noels <st...@outerthought.org>.
Vladimir R. Bossicard wrote:

 >> Xindice should be OS-agnostic (as it is right now), both in terms
 >> of code and documentation.
 >
 > Java projects can't be OS-agnostic.  Do you write 'build.sh' or
 > 'build.bat' 'c:\xml-xindice' or '/usr/local/java/xml-xindice' in the
 > documentation?
 >
 > I prefer to use the Unix notation, that's all.  But feel free to
 > modify the documentation for the Windows OS.

I will if time allows me. I was just concerned to see this negative 
attitude towards Windows being made explicit as a project 'guideline'. 
Please remember that Apache is Open Source, rather than Free Software. 
The only thing which should be important to us is creating thriving 
communities that produce great code. The politics, we leave them aside.

Of course, if no-one finds Windows documentation important enough to 
contribute to it, there won't be many. Fair enough. But please don't try 
to make it part of the policy.

</Steven>
-- 
Steven Noels                            http://outerthought.org/
Outerthought - Open Source, Java & XML Competence Support Center
Read my weblog at              http://radio.weblogs.com/0103539/
stevenn at outerthought.org                stevenn at apache.org


Re: Documentation: target audience

Posted by "Vladimir R. Bossicard" <vl...@bossicard.com>.
 > Xindice should be OS-agnostic (as it is right now), both in
 > terms of code and documentation.

Java projects can't be OS-agnostic.  Do you write 'build.sh' or
'build.bat' 'c:\xml-xindice' or '/usr/local/java/xml-xindice' in the
documentation?

I prefer to use the Unix notation, that's all.  But feel free to modify 
the documentation for the Windows OS.

-Vladimir

-- 
Vladimir R. Bossicard
Apache Xindice - http://xml.apache.org/xindice




Re: Documentation: target audience

Posted by Steven Noels <st...@outerthought.org>.
Vladimir R. Bossicard wrote:

> Xindice is an Open Source software (OSS) and I think that it is our duty to
> promote the Open Source mouvement whenever possible.  But how can Xindice be of
> any help?  Well, by showing how easily Xindice can run on OSS (Linux,
> FreeBSD...).  Windows users won't be forgotten but they won't be the main
> target.

Apache is built around projects, community & code, rather than a 
license. The license has been designed to serve that community & code, 
rather than vice-versa. As such, we should focus on getting Xindice - 
the codebase - to run on as many platforms as possible. Being a Java 
project, Xindice should be OS-agnostic (as it is right now), both in 
terms of code and documentation.

</Steven>
-- 
Steven Noels                            http://outerthought.org/
Outerthought - Open Source, Java & XML Competence Support Center
Read my weblog at              http://radio.weblogs.com/0103539/
stevenn at outerthought.org                stevenn at apache.org


Re: Documentation: target audience

Posted by Ahmed <ah...@baizid.org>.
On Fri, 2002-11-22 at 23:31, Vladimir R. Bossicard wrote:
> Xindice is an Open Source software (OSS) and I think that it is our duty to
> promote the Open Source mouvement whenever possible.  But how can Xindice be of
> any help?  Well, by showing how easily Xindice can run on OSS (Linux,
> FreeBSD...).  Windows users won't be forgotten but they won't be the main
> target.
> Or am I too radical?

Radical is the one who says "You can not copy, modify, distribute my software".



RE: Documentation: target audience

Posted by Lixin Meng <lx...@yahoo.com>.
The primary purpose of documentation is to let users be able to use
Xindince. As long as people can follow the instruction, cannot speak for
others, I pay no attention to if it is a OSS browser.

Lixin

-----Original Message-----
From: Vladimir R. Bossicard [mailto:vladimir@apache.org]
Sent: Friday, November 22, 2002 2:31 PM
To: xindice-dev@xml.apache.org
Subject: Documentation: target audience


Hi all,

We are now starting to write the new documentation and I would like to share
my
opinion about what should be our the target audience.

Xindice is an Open Source software (OSS) and I think that it is our duty to
promote the Open Source mouvement whenever possible.  But how can Xindice be
of
any help?  Well, by showing how easily Xindice can run on OSS (Linux,
FreeBSD...).  Windows users won't be forgotten but they won't be the main
target.

For example, to present how to compile Xindice, I prefer to see:

   /usr/local/xml-xindice/build     [ Unix ]
   c:\xml-xindice\build.bat         [ Windows ]

rather than:

   c:\xml-xindice\build.bat         [ Windows ]
   /usr/local/xml-xindice/build     [ Unix ]

Following the same idea, screenshots and outputs should be taken from a Unix
OS
using an OSS browser of course.

Or am I too radical?

-Vladimir

--
Vladimir R. Bossicard
Apache Xindice - http://xml.apache.org/xindice