Call for review/edits: Bazaar Plugins Guide

[Russel Winder]

On Sat, 2009-08-15 at 15:50 +1000, Ian Clatworthy wrote:
[ . . . ]
> * Do the categories make sense? Should we add more?

Is it essential that the categories are mutually exclusive?  I see no
reason why a plugin cannot appear in more than one category.

There is a continuous tension between labels used in different places
for the same thing.  So is svn the same as bzr-svn?  Bazaar compounds
the problem by publishing the plugin as bzr-svn but telling you it can't
be called that when you load it, you have to load it as svn.

> * What plugins do you commonly use that are missing?

My installation appears to have "netrc_credential_store 2.0dev" and
"stats" but I didn't install them, they came bundled with something
else.

> * Is the layout good? (I've gone with one page per plugin for ease of
>   printing vs one page per command say.)

I think a two or three column layout would help.  Currently the list is
too long, it would be better on a single screen -- especially as all the
entries are click through.

> * Should I add the home page for each plugin under the 'Version:'
>   metadata at the top say? Other metadata? (If so, is there an easy
>   way for me to look this data up vs maintaining it separately?)

I think the svn entry needs a bit of work.  The initial impact was that
the plugin just provides svn-import and svn-layout.  This undersells
bzr-svn massively.  Definitely needs a clickable link to bzr-svn
pages.  

Why have two pages listing plugins, this one links to the other one.
Personally I would want to have one page I know I can go to to find all
plugin-related information.

Having said that I wonder if there needs to be a page detailing the
officially blessed plugins and then a wiki where there can be more of a
free for all where anyone and everyone can add their plugin.  Clearly
there can be migration from one to the other.  Having the officially
blessed ones gives people who worry about quality and support plugins
they can make use of, whereas having the wiki provides a place where
openness is the order of the day -- providing a place where exchange can
happen.  It is true that people can just publish their plugins any way
they want, but that doesn't provide a focus for building a community.

Did I mention I don't like blue.

I wonder if the light blue side bar could just be the same grey as the
section heads.  Or alternatively the grey-blue from the footer.

Is there room to put the plugin logos on where such things exist.  I
think the page needs some points of interest to augment the list, which
seems a bit bare.  Massively useful, but not particularly visually
appealing.  Multiple columns might help in and of itself.

> If you are a *plugin author*, please have a look to see whether your
> plugin is included so far or not:
> 
> * If it is, please check the help generated and fix any formatting
>   errors in the *trunk* of your plugin ASAP. That's usually as simple
>   as making some simple tweaks to the module docstring and/or
>   command docstrings.
> 
> * If it isn't, let me know whether you'd like your plugin added.
>   I'm happy to do that provided the plugin is broadly useful,
>   reliable enough for us to promote it and adequately documented.
>   Obviously users saying "plugin x is really helpful" will
>   make the choice whether to include a plugin or not an easier one. :-)
> 
> If you want to grab the branch in order to build the document yourself
> and/or send me merge proposals, it's available on Launchpad here:
> https://code.launchpad.net/~ian-clatworthy/+junk/bzr-plugins-guide.
> I'll turn this into a proper project and/or merge it into the trunk soon.
> 
> Ian C.
> 
-- 
Russel.
=============================================================================
Dr Russel Winder      Partner
                                            xmpp: russel at russel.org.uk
Concertant LLP        t: +44 20 7585 2200, +44 20 7193 9203
41 Buckmaster Road,   f: +44 8700 516 084   voip: sip:russel.winder at ekiga.net
London SW11 1EN, UK   m: +44 7770 465 077   skype: russel_winder
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