[Libreoffice] LibreOffice WikiHelp

[Jan Holesovsky]

Hi Jean-Baptiste,

On 2010-12-11 at 10:01 +0100, Jean-Baptiste Faure wrote:

> I can't find any wiki page which explain this project. Does such
> web-page exists ? If not, I think such should be created as a reference.

Good idea, I've created it now based on the mail to Sophie; and sorry
that I haven't created it before:

http://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Development/Wikihelp

> I think this wiki page should explain the rationale of the WikiHelp
> project and answer the very important questions that can be found about
> it in dev and doc mailing lists:
> 
> - what about off-line help? I read somewhere that you want export
> WikiHelp to the system help of each platform for which we release LibO.
> That's right ?

Yes.  For 3.3, it is created from the .xhp + .sdf as before, for 3.4 I'd
like to have platform native help.

> Many users, perhaps mainly in NLC, developing country or with restricted
> access to Internet, consider as a stopper to not have off-line
> (installed) localized help.

Sure, understood.

> - what about localization work-flow? How you plan to branch localization
> tools to WikiHelp?

I believe for help, it is better to translate directly in the wiki - you
directly see the results of your work, as a complete page, instead of
just a list of localized strings, without context, and the final
rendering.

Additionally, this has the advantage that the documentation writers do
not have to understand English, to be able to work on the help.

> - what about QA validation of the on-line help? Help is part of the
> software and must QA validated: end-user and system administrator who
> install LibO must be able to have confidence in this reference.
> With other words: if you find an error in a wiki, you do the
> modification yourself. If you find an error in the off-line help, you
> file a bug report. It is not the same thing from the point of view of
> the end-user.

Yes - but it is your advantage :-) - if you get such a bug report, you
say the bug reporter "Oh, it is a wiki, please improve it directly
there!", and just check the result of his work, instead of having to
write it yourself, commit, later check in a build etc.

Hope this helps,
Kendy