Fedora Docs FAQ - proposal, draft

[Karsten Wade]

All:

It looks like we have some regular questions on this list.  If we can
gather together some questions and answers, perhaps Tammy can post a FAQ
on fedora.redhat.com, and/or we can include the FAQ in the Mailman
"Welcome" email.  I'm happy to maintain it for now.

Below is what I've thought of so far.  Let's use this thread to gather
the questions and answers.  These are my proposed answers, please feel
free to "fix" them:

## begin FAQ (draft) ##

Does Fedora Project need writers/editors?

  Yes!  Writers are needed right now more then editors, until we have
  something to edit.


What documents does FP need?

  FP documents are going to be of the tutorial/HOWTO variety.  This is
  the most useful information we can gather at this time, and it works
  well with the distributed project.

  In the future, if small teams want to work on larger works similar
  to the manuals for Red Hat products, we can work on adding that in.


How is the docs project organized?

  Rather loosely right now.  Tammy Fox (tfox at redhat.com) is the
  project leader.  It has been proposed that translators can work in
  teams by languages.

  We may want to organize so that every writer has two-editors, and
  contributors can work in either or both roles.  This makes for a
  more cumbersome process, but the quality control is higher.


What is the process/procedure for translating documents?

  There is currently no defined process.  We are waiting for the
  participation of the ever-busy Red Hat docs translation team.


What are PO files?

  PO files are textual, editable files used in translation.
  http://www.gnu.org/software/gettext/manual/html_mono/gettext.html#SEC7


What are some of the tutorial/HOWTOs currently proposed?

  From the mailing list:

  * Installing an SSH server with public/private key authentication
  * Configuring and using digital cameras


Can I translate the legal notice?

  The legal notice page can be translated, but a statement that the
  translation is provided for convenience only and that the English
  language version takes precedence must be on the top of the page.
  

What are the tools for writing documents?

  http://fedora.redhat.com/projects/docs details how to get the
  Documentation Guide source and tools.  The toolchain is explained on
  that page, with the exception of PO files (see What are PO files?).

  Currently, there is a problem with PDF production (refer to
  https://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=104983).  If
  you have TeX experience and can help us resolve that one, please
  dive in!


I have a tutorial in HTML, how do I convert it to DocBook?

  Grab html2db from http://www.cise.ufl.edu/~ppadala/tidy/ .


What are some resources for learning DocBook?

  The definitive DocBook reference written and maintained by Norm
  Walsh is available at http://docbook.org/tdg/en/html/docbook.html .

  A combination tutorial and reference book is available at
  http://www.sagehill.net/docbookxsl/index.html


Can I have CVS write access?

  Eventually, we intend for full contributors to have write access to
  CVS, as well as access to other build environments.  This is being
  worked out across the entire Fedora Project.  In the meantime, you
  can contact the docs project leader Tammy Fox (tfox at redhat.com) with
  your changes.


What else is can I do to help?

  Have ideas for admonition graphics?

## 30 ##
-- 
Karsten Wade   :      Tech Writer, RHCE     :  o: +1.831.466.9664
kwade at redhat.com : http://rhea.redhat.com/ :   c: +1.831.818.9995
    Red Hat Enterprise Applications : WAF, CMS, Portal Server           
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