Documentation updates in-cycle?

[Phil Bull]

Hi Duncan,

On Sat, 2007-05-12 at 15:11 +0200, Duncan Lithgow wrote:
> On 07/05/07, Matthew East <mdke at ubuntu.com> wrote:
> > 2. the resources taken up by doing the update - when doing an update
> > it's necessary to:
> > (a) prepare a fix both for the unstable version of Ubuntu and each stable
> > version to which the bug applies;
> In other words if the error isn't important enough - it won't get
> fixed. Isn't that the normal situation?
> 
> > (b) make sure the translators know about the change and can translate it;
> I don't how this would work. I think this error is language independant.
> 
> > (c) import the relevant translations;
> 
> > (d) prepare an updated package and submit it to the relevant developer team for checking. > The documentation team is very small and 100% volunteer based and we don't have
> > much time.
> I think this is addressed by point 'a'. If it isn't important enough
> it just won't get done, and that's okay. I also think it's okay if
> some people have the attitude that they will only work on developing
> the unstable branch and not get involved in fixing errors for stable
> releases. It takes all kinds.
> 
> Is it far fetched to imagine that some people would happily work on
> correcting errors while the unstable branch is too new for them to
> help with?

Rather than trying to issue updated packages as individual bugs are
fixed, what if we had a schedule for releasing groups of documentation
bug fixes, sort of like 'service packs'? This would allow the various
teams involved (docteam, translators, developers, release team?) to plan
their time in order to handle the updates, and would mean that far more
bugs would get fixed.

About 1-2 months after release, most major bugs should hopefully have
been found. We could fix all of the known bugs during/after this period,
freeze the repository, give the translators a few weeks to update their
translations and then just release one set of updated documentation
packages at the same time. What do you think?

Thanks,

Phil

-- 
Phil Bull
http://www.launchpad.net/people/philbull