Documentation in 2.5

[Richard Gaskin]

Troy Rollins wrote:

> 
> On Aug 27, 2004, at 6:45 PM, Dan Shafer wrote:
> 
>> But I'd like to be contrary for a moment here (yeah, I know...big 
>> shock, right?) and ask why documentation was "fixed" for 2.5 when as 
>> far as I was concerned it was never broken in 2.2. In fact, it is all 
>> but unusable for the kinds of things I use the online docs for in 2.5.
>
> Well, there was a lot of demand for an updated approach to the docs, 
> though the content was considered excellent. A single-window design was 
> high on the request list.

A single-window design can still be accomodated with having content 
stored in stacks rather than XML, thanks to the "in window of" option 
for the go command:

   go stack <stackName> in window of <stackName>

The production benefits of atomizing the Help files into thousands of 
tiny XML files could still be maintained for the dev team, while 
importing that content into stack files for delivery to the user.

I have an importer for the Transcript Dictionary files that uses a 
variant of the old MetaTalk Dictionary as a shell to hold them -- it 
takes less than 30 seconds to import and once it's done moving from item 
to item is lightning fast.

The Help system that ships with the product could be updated to use 
importers as part of the build process (assuming it's as automated as 
builds here that means adding only one line to a StripAndShip handler).

It would take a couple days to revamp the Help stacks for local storage, 
but I'd happily donate my Dictionary importer to the effort it there was 
an interest in doing this for v2.5.

-- 
  Richard Gaskin
  Fourth World Media Corporation
  ___________________________________________________________
  Ambassador at FourthWorld.com       http://www.FourthWorld.com