question about documentation

[gcarter at valinux.com]

Matthew Geddes wrote:
> 
> It really isn't that hard. If you've ever used 
> something like groff, you could learn it in you sleep. 
> Which more standard format were you thinking of?

I agree is not is hard to figure out.  It's just not 
used anywhere else that I'm aware.  I've run across one
other project that uses YODL.  

My point is that if there is a standard skill set that
is more widely available, we might want to think about 
using that for the following reasons:

  o It provides an easier way for volunteers to jump 
    in and help out.
  o We get to leverage off the current skill set available
    in the Linux community

Of course, this is only my personal opinion. :-)
Does anyone else feel that this is a valid point?
Or am I alone?  We need to set documentation 
standards in order to help guarentee long life
of docs past the period of the maintainer.  In other
words, an esoteric format would be replaced by 
the next maintainer's choice, and so on and so on.
A standared, widely used format would seem to alleviate this
problem somewhat.

Of course, this point is moot without people to do the
work. :-)





Cheers, jerry
----------------------------------------------------------------------
   /\  Gerald (Jerry) Carter                     Professional Services
 \/    http://www.valinux.com/  VA Linux Systems   gcarter at valinux.com
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       "...a hundred billion castaways looking for a home."
                                - Sting "Message in a Bottle" ( 1979 )