Hey,

I like that idea of a nightly build on documentation :-)
If we get this easily integrated on our karaf.apache.org
with the right hint that it's the last documentation from trunk.
Voila done :-)

regards, Achim

2011/6/17 Guillaume Nodet <[email protected]>:
> On Fri, Jun 17, 2011 at 12:28, James Strachan <[email protected]> wrote:
>> On 17 June 2011 11:16, Christian Schneider <[email protected]> wrote:
>>> Hi James,
>>>
>>> first thanks for your explanations.
>>>
>>> Am 17.06.2011 11:14, schrieb James Strachan:
>>>>
>>>> On 17 June 2011 09:19, Christian Schneider<[email protected]>
>>>>  wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>> I know that I have proposed this before and then got the answer that this
>>>>> was discussed already. Still I have the feeling that everybody dislikes
>>>>> the
>>>>> current way we build our website.... so again a try :-)...
>>>>
>>>> I'm not sure you realise how much dislike there is for wikis?
>>>>
>>> I did not realize but I am starting to see :-) I only saw the
>>>>
>>>> Wikis don't help committers and don't help users (as you end up with
>>>> crap everywhere from different versions - or worse documentation for
>>>> stuff thats not even released yet); all just in case we hope one day
>>>> someone will turn up and dump a load of useful stuff in the wiki (that
>>>> never really happens).
>>>
>>> That is true help from people outside the project is rare.
>>>>
>>>> Incidentally I'm even finding the argument that a wiki is the easiest
>>>> way to get contributions to have less and less value these days since
>>>> github. Its actually easier for a total newbie to come along, fork an
>>>> apache project's git repo on github.com, edit some text files&  do a
>>>> pull request than it is to pester folks for write access to the wiki
>>>> first before they can even begin to contribute anything. The wiki has
>>>> a much larger barrier to entry than github.
>>>
>>> Github would be a great way to improve the documentation workflow for karaf.
>>> You would not
>>> need to open a jira issue to make a change and apply patch. Sadly we are
>>> stuck with subversion.
>>
>> Sure - the sooner we can ditch subversion at Apache the better.
>> However still the easiest way to get new documentation contributions
>> today at Apache is to get folks to fork the apache repos at github.
>> Then asynchronously do the ICLA stuff; not block on the ICLA first.
>>
>>
>>
>>>> Imagine for a second, you are a newbie - you've seen some issue or
>>>> have an idea for a little page; with github 2 clicks, 20 seconds later
>>>> you're editing the file in question or writing the new file then
>>>> firing off the pull request and getting on with your life doing
>>>> something else. With a wiki you try editing; doesn't work, so you
>>>> shoot off an email for access then wait. Then after a random time
>>>> period of hours to days you get more mails then at some point later,
>>>> you get the ability to login again to the wiki and hopefully you can
>>>> now edit the page. By the time you get access you've probably
>>>> forgotten what you were gonna do in the first place :)
>>>
>>> The process of getting rights for the wiki is a problem of course. But it is
>>> necesary as we need the icla to accept contributions.
>>> That may also be a big problem with github. You send a pull request but that
>>> opens a big problem with IP issues. I think a pull request
>>> does not include that the user declares that he has the rights on the code
>>> he submits and may donate them to apache. In fact it does not even say he
>>> donates the code at all.
>>> So for example offering dual licenses later is a problem. I think this is a
>>> big issue with github. I am not sure how important this is for documentation
>>> though.
>>
>> We need the ICLA before we can merge into our repo. However thats a
>> completely separate issue to the potential new contributor being able
>> to actually create their contribution in the first place. The ICLA
>> stuff can be done in parallel after their initial contribution and it
>> really doesn't matter if it takes weeks to do (which it usually does
>> anyway). Apache committers are the only ones who merge the github
>> changes to the Apache repos - so there is zero issue of IP here.
>>
>> Whats important is folks can contribute quickly and easily with
>> minimum delay or red tape. We're all busy; if you have to wait 2-3
>> weeks before you can add a line of text to a document; you're gonna
>> find something else to do quite frankly. Waiting weeks for an ICLA
>> does not make it easy for newbies to contribute. With github they can
>> make their contributions immediately; folks can immediately see it and
>> comment on it. Then in parallel work can commence on getting the ICLA
>> in place so the changes can be merged to Apache. Indeed while the ICLA
>> is being processed the user can make more contributions. When the ICLA
>> is done then a committer can merge in whatever documentation changes
>> they've made.
>
> Over the last 5 years, I've rarely seen people contributing a lot to
> the doc without being or becoming committers.
> I don't want to change a technical decision based on the fact that
> people *might* need something, but rather what people actually need.
> You are a committer, so you can access / modify the documentation
> without any problems.  So what are your real problems with the current
> solution ?  We can easily set up nightly uploads or even an hourly
> cron job (though given the change rate, i think a nightly one should
> be sufficient).   If you need an editor, you always find some software
> I think such as
> http://www.labnol.org/software/wysiwyg-wiki-editor/18062/ though I
> tend to use the "mvn jetty:run" which works quite well as you can see
> your changes immediately.
>
> The main problem is that we've been asked by infra to get rid of
> confluence, so I certainly don't want to think about getting back to
> confluence unless infra retracts.
>
>>
>> --
>> James
>> -------
>> FuseSource
>> Email: [email protected]
>> Web: http://fusesource.com
>> Twitter: jstrachan, fusenews
>> Blog: http://macstrac.blogspot.com/
>>
>> Open Source Integration and Messaging
>>
>
>
>
> --
> ------------------------
> Guillaume Nodet
> ------------------------
> Blog: http://gnodet.blogspot.com/
> ------------------------
> Open Source SOA
> http://fusesource.com
>



-- 
--
*Achim Nierbeck*


Apache Karaf <http://karaf.apache.org/> Committer & PMC
OPS4J Pax Web <http://wiki.ops4j.org/display/paxweb/Pax+Web/>
Committer & Project Lead

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