[GNC-dev] Documentation Version Display

D sunfish62 at yahoo.com
Fri Aug 24 15:10:08 EDT 2018



On August 24, 2018, at 2:11 PM, John Ralls <jralls at ceridwen.us> wrote:

>
>
>On Aug 24, 2018, at 10:49 AM, David T. <sunfish62 at yahoo.com> wrote:
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>On Aug 24, 2018, at 1:35 PM, John Ralls <jralls at ceridwen.us> wrote:
>
>On Aug 24, 2018, at 10:03 AM, David T. <sunfish62 at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>John, 
>On Aug 24, 2018, at 10:57 AM, John Ralls <jralls at ceridwen.us> wrote:
>On Aug 24, 2018, at 5:51 AM, David T. via gnucash-devel <gnucash-devel at gnucash.org> wrote:
>Hello,
>Today, I had the opportunity to examine the online Help text, where I saw detailed information about the Transaction Report, which has recently changed radically. The information provided on the online Help clearly references the new version of this report, which I surmise because I am still running 2.6.21, and I do not have this version of the report.
>Here is the problem: there is no indication in the online resources (either in the document itself, or on Gnucash.org <http://gnucash.org/>) the version of GnuCash to which the documentation refers. This could lead to user confusion, as they see help that refers to functionality that they do not have.
>I am sure that the stock answer here will be: “GnuCash is currently on release 3.2, and therefore the documentation available at Gnucash.org <http://gnucash.org/> reflects the current release.” I respect that. 
>However, at any given time, there will be people who choose for one reason or another not to upgrade to the latest and greatest version—or more problematically, are unaware that they are not running the latest version. These users would benefit from being informed *somewhere* that the documentation that they are consulting is for a particular version. Is there some way to add the version number to the header of the documentation pages? (The footer is also an option, but is less preferable online since the footer is often well off screen, and may not be noticed by a distressed user trying to figure out a problem). If the version covered were presented on screen on every page, then the user would have a clear reminder of this.
>David,
>Sure there is.
>On https://www.gnucash.org/docs.phtml there’s a huge header above each set of document links: "GnuCash v3 (current stable release)”, “GnuCash v2.6 (old stable release)”,
>“Nightly Documentation Builds”, and “Older GnuCash Documentation”.
>You overlook the large section above this which prominently proclaims the "two major GnuCash documentation packages” and provides direct links to each of these ***without making any statement of version***. Moreover, the structure of the page would imply that the documents behind *these* links are somehow different from the ones beneath the "current stable release” header. Perhaps the ones at the top are newer and better? It’s difficult to tell. I’ll note that the links behind these entries even differ, making it practically speaking impossible for a user to know whether these two documents are in fact the same. I would finally suggest that “current stable release” is not as universal a term as many in this community think it is. I believe that many users wouldn’t know what it signifies.
>Once you’re browsing the document, go to “About this Document” from the table of contents. After “Legal Notice” and “Feedback” you’ll find “History”, the top entry of which indicates the exact release for which the documentation applies.
>The About this document appears only on the main TOC page. What about the rest of the document? Users don’t always access our online help via the main TOC.
>Of course it’s possible to add the version into the header. I suppose the simplest would be to change the chapter titles e.g. “Chapter 4. GnuCash Windows & Menus Overview” to “Chapter 4. GnuCash v3.2  Windows & Menus Overview”, just change the chapter title from 
><application>&app;</application> Windows & Menus Overview
>to
><application>&app; &vers-stable;</application> Windows & Menus Overview
>Chapter titles (“Getting Started”) that don’t include the application tag would need to be reworded, e.g. “Getting Started with GnuCash 3.2”.
>How hard would it be to have each header get a second line with &vers-stable programmatically added during the generation process?
>Chapter 4. GnuCash Windows & Menus Overview
>v3.2
>
>David,
>
>Good point about the top two links. I’ve modified them to be versioned. I’ll add some clarifying text after I figure out how to not break the translations in the process.
>
>The header line would be a third in most cases, the first being the section, see e.g. https://www.gnucash.org/docs/v3/C/gnucash-help/acct-create.html. I think that would be pretty ugly. Note that in light of your objection that users don’t always access the online help via the main ToC that there are also mid-page anchors; users going there (often via context help) won’t see either the header or the footer. OTOH unless the packager has screwed up, the help accessed via context help should be the version associated with the GnuCash version being used.
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>Regards,
>
>John Ralls
>
>John,
>
>I see your point about adding Yet Another Line to the header. What about changing the title of each to include the version? I.e., “The Help Manual (v3.2)”
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>Just trying to find a fix!
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>So the whole line would be “The Help Manual (v3.2) Chapter 5. Setting Up, Editing & Working with New Accounts”? 
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>What about *not* echoing the section title in the header? It’s after all the first line of the page as well so it’s a bit redundant. Then the document title, including the version, could go first. I think “GnuCash v3.2 Help Manual” and “GnuCash v3.2 Tutorial and Concepts Guide” would make a bit more sense that “The Help Manual (v3.2)”.
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>I suppose the PDF and ebook formats would have the document title on even (left-hand) pages and the chapter title on odd pages; that seems to be a common idiom in print media.
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>Regards,
>
>John Ralls
>

That sounds like the right answer. 

Now, to consider renaming the documents themselves... ;) personally, I'd go with "Help" and "Concepts" or perhaps "Help Manual" and "Concepts Guide."

 David


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