Why Two sets of Documentation?

[Derek Atkins]

David,

"David T." <sunfish62 at yahoo.com> writes:

> Derek--
>
> That sounds like a nice idea. But I re-state that having the context
> help packaged separately from the application is a little wacky to
> me--and if you create links from context help into the concepts guide,
> the same point would apply to the Concepts guide (just one layer
> removed).

Oh, I agree!  I think the context-sensitive help should be part of
GnuCash itself.  However how LARGE is the context-sensitive help?  How
much would it bloat the application to include it?

> Is there some way to incorporate the context help directly into the
> main Gnucash application, so that users would at least get that
> just-the-facts kind of help from the get-go?

Define "directly into the main application".  If you mean, could we move
the files out of gnucash-docs and into gnucash and then distribute them
in the gnucash tarball, then yes, that's possible (within reason, based
on the size considerations).  However if you mean including the docs in
the C source code itself, then no, that's not at all reasonable.

> David

-derek

> --- On Wed, 6/2/10, Derek Atkins <warlord at MIT.EDU> wrote:
>
>> From: Derek Atkins <warlord at MIT.EDU>
>> Subject: Re: Why Two sets of Documentation?
>> To: "Josh Sled" <jsled at asynchronous.org>
>> Cc: "David T." <sunfish62 at yahoo.com>, gnucash-devel at gnucash.org
>> Date: Wednesday, June 2, 2010, 7:38 AM
>> Josh Sled <jsled at asynchronous.org>
>> writes:
>> 
>> > "David T." <sunfish62 at yahoo.com>
>> writes:
>> >> From my (limited) perspective, I see very little
>> substantive difference between the two sets. Most times, the
>> Tutorial guide has better information to my way of looking
>> at it. 
>> >
>> > There is no good reason for two documents.  They
>> should be combined,
>> > focused on concepts rather than a recitation of the
>> toolbar buttons and
>> > menu items.
>> 
>> Well, I think it's useful to have context-sensitive help
>> where you can
>> ask for help based on the page you're viewing and get docs
>> on what the
>> various menu items do.
>> 
>> Is it possible to create a context-sensitive
>> what-each-menu-option-does
>> set of links into the concepts guide?
>> 
>> -derek
>> -- 
>>        Derek Atkins, SB '93 MIT
>> EE, SM '95 MIT Media Laboratory
>>        Member, MIT Student
>> Information Processing Board  (SIPB)
>>        URL: http://web.mit.edu/warlord/   
>> PP-ASEL-IA     N1NWH
>>        warlord at MIT.EDU 
>>                
>>       PGP key available
>> 
>
>
>       
>
>

-- 
       Derek Atkins, SB '93 MIT EE, SM '95 MIT Media Laboratory
       Member, MIT Student Information Processing Board  (SIPB)
       URL: http://web.mit.edu/warlord/    PP-ASEL-IA     N1NWH
       warlord at MIT.EDU                        PGP key available