Help System Specification: Rationale of help path

[rhkramer at gmail.com]

> On Sun, 2021-05-09 at 07:41 +0900, notebook wrote:
> > Hello,
> > 
> > Summary
> > ========
> > I'd like to know why help files are sorted by language first and then
> > by application name, instead of the other way around.
> > // I hope this is the right place
> > Details
> > =======
> > In [1] is specified, that help files are found under
> > `$XDG_DATA_DIRS/help/$lang/$path/`. That is, help files are "sorted"
> > by language first, and then by application name.
> >    Example:
> >      /usr/share/help/en/gedit
> >      /usr/share/help/en/firefox
> >      /usr/share/help/de/gedit

From the peanut gallery, I prefer the above.  I am not likely to ever try to 
access a help file in other than my native language ((American) English), so 
getting into a directory with all the other English help files seems more 
natural to me.

That is as a user -- maybe as a developer who might be translating help files 
into other languages, it might be better the other way round.

But, as Shaun wrote (all elided), it is probably not worth the effort to 
change.


> > I personally see more benefit in "sorted" by application name first,
> > and language second.
> >    Example:
> >      /usr/share/help/gedit/en
> >      /usr/share/help/gedit/de
> >      /usr/share/help/firefox/en
> > 
> > Apart from easier manual handling, I would say this ordering helps
> > keeping applications apart from each other, versus, the current spec
> > looks like it turn the whole system into a big soup.