ubuntu-manual team mailing list archive

[Jim Connett <jimandmarcy@xxxxxxxxx>]

I'll +1 Patrick's perspective.

Since 11.04, I've used various LaTeX applications in authoring sections of
the Ubuntu manual. In fact, if memory serves, 13.04 and 13.10 will be the
first back-to-back releases where I've used TeXStudio. I've also used Gummi
on one manual, and TexMaker on another. Personally, I find TexStudio
provides a nice balance between form and function for me. It doesn't do
EVERYTHING I'd like it to do from the GUI front end (for example, I still
have to manually 'make' the manual after saving changes), but it provides
me a tool in which I feel quite familiar since being exposed to the Eclipse
IDE on a daily basis at work. It's also readily available from the Ubuntu
repository.

We have had some Ubuntu authors who, in the past, haven't submitted their
sections in LaTeX format, and instead, submit a .doc or .txt file. While
this is acceptable, past experience shows this creates a sizable amount of
work for the editor (or the author who decides to help another author in
adding markup to create a manual that compiles). It also creates an added
measure of work for those who index the manual and put in the finishing
formats before release. Since the editor is responsible for the correctness
of the section, adding LaTeX often falls upon the editor, for better or for
worse.

On the Ubuntu side of the project, it would certainly be my encouragement
for authors to use a markup tool/IDE, such as TexStudio, TexMaker, or Kile
(as examples). Spend 5 minutes with a .tex file, and you'll have 60%-70% of
what an author needs to know to use LaTeX in the Ubuntu Manual Project.
Additionally, the Ubuntu style-guide provides guidance for common tags used
in the manual.

So..to directly answer your question, Jonathan, no, no one has ever cited
the markup language as the reason why they either don't participate now, or
won't participate going forward.  I don't see it as a barrier, or even an
issue.


On Sat, Jun 15, 2013 at 5:01 PM, Patrick Dickey <pdickeybeta@xxxxxxxxx>wrote:

> In the past, the team gave authors a choice between working with
> the .tex files, or submitting their text in Google Docs format. That was
> either for the Precise or both the Precise and Quantal editions, but
> they didn't do it in the Raring edition. It was too much work for the
> editors to go through and create the LaTeX for anything that needed it
> (from the Google Docs files).
>
> I don't remember too many issues from Authors or Editors in working with
> the LaTeX files this time around (but I may have missed them).
>
> Also Gummi doesn't look like it's very active. The last release was in
> October, 2012, and the last revision in the files was in March, 2013. If
> you look at the roadmap, everything is late.  I agree it looks like a
> lot of work to get it going for the manual (especially since we'd have
> to fix the open issues also).
>
> Of course, letting the developer know that we might be interested in
> using his program might be the kick in the pants that he needs to fix
> the open issues.  As always, this is just my. .02 worth.
>
> Have a great weekend.:)
> Patrick.
>
> On Sat, 2013-06-15 at 11:35 -0700, Jonathan Marsden wrote:
> > On 06/15/2013 11:27 AM, Yorvyk wrote:
> >
> > > I notice that in the dim and distant past there was a blueprint item
> > > [1] to see if gummi could be made to work with UMP. I take it this
> > > went no where. If this is the case, are there any programmers who'd
> > > like to prod it to see if it could be made to work.
> >
> > That seems like a lot of work, compared to just having people use any
> > decent text editor that they are already familiar with.  Do we have
> > significant numbers of authors and editors who are being scared away by
> > the need to directly work with LaTeX source?
> >
> > Jonathan
> >
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