More work on the desktop help?

[Chris Perry]

Hi Gunnar

Thanks for your reply. It's useful. I'm not going to respond to all
your points but I'll respond to some.

Regarding bug reports. Yes I like them, in part because then the
problem (assuming it's a genuine problem) is publicly documented. So
yes I agree: "So let's file bugs! (And fix them also...)".

Regarding "Typically the old open bugs are not trivial to fix". Yes I
agree. For example, sometimes a bug requires input from a developer.
For the present I won't be attempting the difficult bugs.

Regarding:

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DocumentationTeam/SystemDocumentation/UbuntuDesktopGuide

yes I'll try to revise the description of how to use Bazaar.

Regarding the desktop help, I'll probably focus on small updates,
fixing things that could (in my opinion) confuse users. (At present
I'm not planning to rewrite pages - assuming there exist pages that
need rewriting.) For the present at least I'll check with you before I
do the work (as I've done with my first two merge proposals).

Thanks for your help,

Chris.

On 30 September 2016 at 21:24, Gunnar Hjalmarsson <gunnarhj at ubuntu.com> wrote:
> Hi Chris,
>
> First I want to let others know that you already kickstarted the work
> with the 17.04 desktop guide. Two bugs fixed even if 16.10 is not yet
> released. Thank you for that. Great work!
>
> On 2016-09-27 21:04, Chris Perry wrote:
>> Can I do some more work on the desktop help?
>
> Yes, of course. The desktop guide is constantly in a work in progress
> state. Since the Ubuntu desktop is changing continuously, the desktop
> guide will never be finished.
>
> One approach is to simply pick existing pages or sections of pages of
> your choice, check that they are still relevant and accurate, and
> propose the changes you find motivated. Another thing is asking
> yourself: Is there any topic which is missing? If you find there is, I
> think it's a good idea to bring the idea for new page(s) up to this list
> for discussion before doing too much work.
>
> One thing worth mentioning is that many, maybe most of the pages in the
> Ubuntu desktop guide origin from GNOME Help. Many of the corresponding
> pages at GNOME have changed since the version we once 'merged' into the
> Ubuntu desktop guide. Consequently, when checking existing pages which
> origin from GNOME, one natural step is to compare with the latest GNOME
> version and 'sync' if applicable. (Take
> <https://launchpad.net/bugs/1624778> as an example of what I'm talking
> about.)
>
> In an attempt to organize the work, we have occasionally made use of a
> spreadsheet which lists all the desktop guide pages:
>
> https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/19RdaR3G_8TQ49f-Nb0XJAwhnlweMWJqsTr4kciSV5S0/edit#gid=584037095
>
> Maybe we should add a tab for the Z series (possibly copy the remarks
> from Xenial, which were made relatively recently).
>
> But while using such a spreadsheet is a way to document which pages got
> our attention lately, the bug tracker is the principal tool for keeping
> track of identified issues. Let me take a trivial example: When
> completing the Swedish translations for yakkety, I found that some
> original strings of a page were obsolete. At that time it was too late
> to change the original content for yakkety, so I filed the bug report
> mentioned above in order to remember it. (And now you've fixed it.)
>
> So let's file bugs! (And fix them also...)
>
> Talking about bugs, there are a couple of dozen of those which are still
> open. Some of them are several years old. Typically the old open bugs
> are not trivial to fix; there is often a need to do some research. Such
> research is part of working with the desktop guide, so don't hesitate to
> get your teeth into one of those bugs.
>
>> I had a look at the middle-click bug #1617718 but I don't think it's
>> possible to do an update until Canonical give the official word on
>> how it works.
>
> That's a good example of a bug where research is needed; in this case we
> need expertise input.
>
>> Possibly the Security & Privacy bug #1200381? However, most of
>> Security & Privacy looks very straightforward, so the help might be
>> in danger of adding nothing (to what the user can already see on the
>> tabs)?
>
> Yeah, I hear that you don't think it's a high priority bug, and
> personally I agree.
>
>> For anyone interested in contributing to the desktop help the
>> documentation is here (link below). The process is mostly
>> straightforward - though I got confused when trying to use the
>> revision control system (Bazaar).
>>
>> https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DocumentationTeam/SystemDocumentation/UbuntuDesktopGuide
>
> My impression is that you have a good grasp of the basics by now. You
> hadn't worked with a version control system before, and there is a
> learning curve. When you stumbled on a few things, you asked by private
> mail, and that's perfectly fine.
>
> Since you mentioned that guide, I'd like to ask you to consider if there
> is room for improvements. You just submitted your first merge proposals,
> so it's a perfect time to use that experience as a base for adjusting
> the guide if necessary.
>
>
> Last but not least: Keep taking initiatives like you've done so far, and
> keep asking questions.
>
> Thanks for joining the documentation team!
>
> --
> Gunnar Hjalmarsson
> https://launchpad.net/~gunnarhj