On 8/10/07, S h i v <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > One gap I have always seen to be the case with a non-Windows system is > a good help system.
While the help system in Windows may be reasonable, I've found the actual help to be rather erratic. The more I needed it, the worse it got :-( Actually, reasonable help systems (or documentation systems) have existed. I seem to recall IRIX having something quite decent, and even the original answerbook wasn't that bad. Unfortunately both got replaced by trendy but massively inferior web-based systems. > Indiana over a period of time should consider to have a good help framework. > > [1] It should allow the user to *discover the solution* instead of > making the user reach out for mailing lists, IRCs, 1000page docs. > A. *Good/functional search* > B. Indexed > [2] The document & tool information should be accessible > Correct interlinkages : Context sensitive, See Also, Related > Tools, Related Tasks, Examples, etc. > [3] Mechanism for developers to integrate help content for their app > into the main help system > Content generation becomes responsibility of the software developers. > [4] Mechanism for people to contribute content (not always allows > display, but allows edit and upload for authenticated users) > (Google earth community built the bookmark for the entire globe > in no time) > [5] Have facility for user feedback > Helps make content relevant, especially when user doesn't get > the information he needs from the help system. > > See the thread at desktop-discuss for detailed comments > http://mail.opensolaris.org/pipermail/desktop-discuss/2007-August/010456.html > > And no, man pages do not satisfy the requirements. May I ask why not? Is it because you believe that man pages shouldn't be useful for this purpose? Or that current man pages don't meet the requirements? Or that the man command is too primitive? Because I would say that the man pages *should* be the answer. So what needs to be done to improve them so they are adequate? Processed into html and indexed with javahelp would go a long way to making them very useable by your criteria. (One thing that constantly irritates me is that Solaris doesn't supply preformatted versions, making man slow. It doesn't automatically build a windex file, so searches don't work. Lookups don't use the windex file so finding a manpage requires traversing a directory tree, which makes man unnecessarily slow. We could just stuff the unformatted and preformatted manpages along with a windex file in the same file as the javahelp helpSet and just deliver one file per software package. Finding a manpage involves just looking up in the zipfile index, installation is way quicker because it's only one file, space is saved because it's compressed, and you don't have the messy problem of trying to keep preformatted and windex files up to date that is the case if you just have a directory that can be written to by anybody. Digression ends.) > We can consider these met the day when we stop seeing requests for > help on opensolaris list for tasks such as > - Changing computer name > - Changing ip address > - Rebooting/shutting down a system as non-root user > - Configuring wifi/ethernet > (A person being able to send a mail to opensolaris.org should be > sufficient enough skill to do the above tasks using the help system). I have a slightly different view. For simple tasks, the need for documentation indicates a deficiency in the software that needs to be addressed - documentation is there to hide the fundamental usability flaws in the software itself. Where I want documentation is to learn about new capabilities, how to do complex tasks (where the wizard might help but you still need to understand the meaning of what goes in the boxes), and configuration advice. > ps: openoffice.org has a pretty decent help system. But it is a bit > slow(in java) though. Again, I've found the content insufficient when I need it. -- -Peter Tribble http://www.petertribble.co.uk/ - http://ptribble.blogspot.com/ _______________________________________________ indiana-discuss mailing list [email protected] http://mail.opensolaris.org/mailman/listinfo/indiana-discuss
