SQL HOWTO

[Jon Lapham]

Linas Vepstas wrote:
> On Tue, Sep 23, 2003 at 02:26:07PM -0300, Jon Lapham was heard to remark:
> 
>>Where were you for the WEEKS of discussion that went on about this!
> 
> I missed the one click or two conversation

Here are the relevant discussions.  This took me 2 minutes of effort to 
find.

My First proposal:
http://lists.gnucash.org/pipermail/gnucash-devel/2003-August/009881.html

And I quote, "Disadvantages:  1) Two clicks to get to documentation 
other than the current User Guide and Help Manual."

After this discussion, I made a mock up page:
http://lists.gnucash.org/pipermail/gnucash-devel/2003-August/009887.html

After discussion, I made a second mock up page:
http://lists.gnucash.org/pipermail/gnucash-devel/2003-August/010028.html

Which was finally announced when it went live:
http://lists.gnucash.org/pipermail/gnucash-devel/2003-August/010042.html


>>OK, but no one has done that yet.

>>No one has done that!  I hope you are joking.  I have spend a great deal 
>>of time incorporating a wide range of scattered docs into the official 
> 
> 
> I was refering to the web presentation, and not to what you have been
> doing.  I know you've done an immense amount of work to update/write
> the documentation, and I'd like to really thank you for that.

If you would have included the entire quote, it is pretty obvious. 
Here, let me help.

I said "I know we have a lot of things (like the SQL HOWTO, the main 
README, the translators howto, the business howto, etc, etc) that we 
need to make available to people.  However, I think we need to organize 
the presentation of this material so as to not make GnuCash look like 
it..." (you cut in at this point to say) "OK, but no one has done that 
yet.".

So, my "No one has done that!  I hope you are joking." comment was a 
response to the fact that *I* have been working on incorporating the 
plethora of READMEs, HOWTOs, etc, etc, into the official documentation. 
    *I* have been working to organize the plethora of documentation 
(notice the grouping of the docs on the documentation page?).  I have 
been tracking down which versions of GnuCash the various documentation 
sources refer to.

> I was refering to the web page, not to the documentation.

How?  Read the quotes again.

>>>p.s. I moved and modified docs.phtml so it adheres to the style of the
>>>rest of the site.
>>
>>Which entails what?  
> 
> I just thought I'd point it out, in case you or someone else wondered
> why it moved.  I needed to move it so it could get translated.

Thanks for the heads up!  By the way, you do know that you broke links?

>>I think you are wrong.  But, fine, your opinion.
> 
> 
> About what? the one click versus multiple clicks question?

Geesh, no.  Since I pointed this very fact out in my first email to the 
list about the doc changes, how could I think you are wrong about that? 
  Read the actual quotes again, I am tiring of reconstructing the 
discussion.

> Laying out a web site is *not* the same as writing documentation.
> The presentation style is very different.  Websites are fundamentally
> hyperlinked, documentation almost never is.  The navigation strategies
> are fundamentally different.  The way people use a web site is different
> than the way they use documentation, because they are trying to
> accomplish different things.
> 
> Note that websites and documentation might contain the same, if not
> similar data.  Its just organized differently.  There is nothing wrong
> with that.  

!?  Thank you for the lesson.  Like I said before, I am happy to put 
things back to their previous state.

> 
> 
>>I will be happy to add the links back to the main page.  I thought I was 
> 
> 
> Leave them as they are for now. It works.  
> 
> Try to think of the SQL link as a bit of advertising.  For a little
> while, it will get exposure far beyond its importance. And then, when
> it gets boring, we'll put it back in its place.
> 
> 
>>You have really pissed me off.  Goodbye.
> 
> 
> !!  You were the one who threw the rock.  Now your mad ?

Which rock would that be?  The Grandmother comment?  I stand by that, 
and it isn't a rock.  Grow some skin.


-- 
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  Jon Lapham  <lapham at extracta.com.br>          Rio de Janeiro, Brasil
  Work: Extracta Moléculas Naturais SA     http://www.extracta.com.br/
  Web: http://www.jandr.org/
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