Usage of apturl in the documentation

[Matthew East]

Hi,

On Fri, Sep 5, 2008 at 11:31 PM, Vadim Peretokin <vperetokin at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I'd like to raise the possibility of using apturl in the documentation to
> make it more newbie-, and lazy-friendly.
>
> About apturl: homepage is here (https://launchpad.net/apturl), made by mvo,
> included in ubuntu since 7.10. Syntax is to make a link that does
> apt:program or apt://program, when user clicks on a link, they get a dialog
> asking them if they'd like to install that program or no. Multiple programs
> can be installed by separating the links with a ;, like this:
> apt:program1;apt:program2
>
> Currently, the ubuntu help wiki is configured in such a way that it doesn't
> allow apt: links. But I'd like them to be considered as an alternative to
> making the user open a terminal just to install some program(s).

Having discussed this briefly with Vadim on irc, it seems like a good
idea to me to simplify some of our installation instructions
(currently set out on WikiGuide/Style). But it would also apply to our
offline docs, as well as wiki docs.

Does anyone know of any potential disadvantages to switching to apturl
as our preferred method of giving an instruction to install software?

I haven't thought of a neat way to express an installation instruction
so that it is helpful both to an Ubuntu user who can use apturl and
just click a link, and those reading the page from another operating
system or printing the page. I guess it would be something like:

 * Install ''package'' (by clicking here, or visiting
SoftwareInstallation for more information).

But that's a little unwieldy. Does anyone have any neater ideas?

-- 
Matthew East
http://www.mdke.org
gnupg pub 1024D/0E6B06FF