Ubuntu Docteam problems post string freeze

[Matthew East]

On Sat, 2005-10-08 at 02:49 -0300, Matthew Thomas wrote:
> On 8 Oct, 2005, at 12:01 AM, Robert Stoffers wrote:
> > ...
> > There have been several bugs filed lately, some duplicates, for several
> > known issues with our documentation. Mostly it has been a problem that
> > is caused by the fact we are writing about software that is still 
> > having changes made to it.
> >
> > One other noticeable problem was with the name of the next release of 
> > Ubuntu, Dapper Duck, in that we didn't know what it was going to be 
> > called until after string freeze.
> 
> Nor should you have to! The idea that the help for an operating system 
> should need to mention the *codename* for the *next release* is truly 
> bizarre. Please mention this in the Rationale section of the BoF notes 
> <https://wiki.ubuntu.com/AutomaticUpgrade>.
> 
> > ...
> > My solution to this problem is simple: ubuntu-docs shouldn't be 
> > included in the initial release of each new version of Ubuntu, but 
> > instead pushed out as an update after release.
> 
> I can think of four other options:
> 1.  Make the feature freeze earlier and/or harder.
> 2.  Make the documentation freeze later and/or softer.
> 3.  Increase the number of writers working in the time between those
>      two freezes.
> 4.  Reduce the scope of the documentation.

All of these options are better than releasing ubuntu-docs after release
of the operating system in my opinion.

I have another one:

5. enforce the freezes.

In terms of (2), it might be a good idea to have the doc string freeze
later, and to allow _translations_ to come into the operating system
after release. This would be a good balance to strike in my opinion. We
just need to make sure that the lessons of this freeze are learned and
put foward at UBZ... 

A general comment on features missing from the documentation:

Things like gnome-app-install and language-selector have been in Ubuntu
since early in the release cycle (gnome-app-install is in hoary,
although has been vastly improved for Breezy). So we should be able to
document stuff like that, unless it honestly does miss the feature
freeze. But also, it doesn't actually matter that much if the occasional
thing goes wrong: in the case of those features they are incredibily
simple and easy to use without documentation, and in any case, we can
make sure that the documentation for dapper includes them.

No one expects miracles from the documentation team, it's obvious that
we are only a few volunteers. Don't be discouraged by the occasional gap
in the docs.

Matt
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