Thoughts on how to structure the release notes...

[Edward C. Bailey]

>>>>> "Toshio" == Toshio  <toshio at tiki-lounge.com> writes:

Toshio> I don't want small one-off groups.  The SELinux group would talk
Toshio> about all the bits and pieces of all the packages that had to be
Toshio> modified to make the change happen.  Like you say though, this is a
Toshio> lot^H^H^H^H^H too much work.

You bet it would be!  Whew -- every really important part of my body just
puckered when I read this!  :-)

...
Toshio> I think that the use case of a software installer versus
Toshio> informational reading is different enough that the comps.xml file
Toshio> can be fine for the installer and inappropriate for the release
Toshio> notes.  That said, I think the comps.xml file can be a very good
Toshio> starting place.  It just needs some simple adjustments like
Toshio> condensing several of the comps.xml groups into one meta-group.

Maybe so, be keep in mind that such "simple adjustments" are what will chew
up the majority of my most scarce commodity -- time.  If I can get, say,
90% of the benefit, and that last 10% is going to double the amount of time
required, it's not worth it -- I'll take the 90% benefit, and use the time
saved for other tasks.

That said, it may be that the structure of the comps file could use a bit
of tweaking.  However, that aspect of the distribution is not mine to
tweak. :-)

...
>>  The way the release notes are displayed in Anaconda limits what I can
>> do as far as the hierarchy is concerned.  The HTML rendering widget used
>> is pretty primitive, so a single-level hierarchy is pretty much the best
>> we can shoot for.

Toshio> I don't need hypertext links and all that, but can't we do
Toshio> something like this:
...
Toshio> If there's a lot to say about a component, then add more entries
Toshio> underneath.  If there really isn't then leave it all at the next
Toshio> higher level.

Toshio> I need more organization to help my brain remember all the changes
Toshio> in the distribution.  Even a shallow hierarchy like this makes it
Toshio> possible to remember a lot more detail.

I'll see if I can sweet-talk some developers into working on this -- one
has already privately expressed willingness to look into this, so cross
your fingers. :-)

                            Ed
-- 
Ed Bailey        Red Hat, Inc.          http://www.redhat.com/