RFC: TopicBasedHelp specification (sec=unclassified)

[Stoffers, Robert LAC]

I've been silently following along with this thread (as I tend to do
with the Ubuntu-doc list) but one thing strikes me as plainly ignorant:

> Then please do whatever you can to get KDE using a topic-based help
system sometime in the next six
> months as well. It's a better approach regardless of the environment
you're using.

This isn't the first time I have seen someone from the Ubuntu project
simply dismiss what KDE (and by extension Kubuntu) are doing and suggest
that they follow along with whatever GNOME/Ubuntu are doing because it
is more convenient for Ubuntu. This is the wrong attitude to take, don't
be surprised if the response is something along the lines of "rack off"
(as some of you have found in the past). 

I've read over what little there is in the way of documentation
regarding Project Mallard and I'm personally yet to be convinced that it
is the ultimate solution to everything. The only thing this project is
achieving right now is stagnating work on any other improvements that
could be made to the GNOME/Ubuntu documentation process while everyone
sits and waits for the project to do something.

> > Do we really gain a vast improvment over what we currently have?

>Yes.

Such as what? Seems like a whole lot of work only to end up with even
less useful content. Nobody I know uses Windows in-built help system
regardless of the improvements they make to it, why go down this path
too?

> Having each topic in its own file will make it easier for multiple
licenses to coexist.

We can do this using Docbook right now, what difference/benefit will
reinventing the wheel aka Project Mallard give us in this respect?

Cheers,

Robert Stoffers