Write Often, Publish Often

Sat, 14 Dec 2002 16:44:19 -0800

Sorry for posting such a large message (~40kb), I hope everyone is okay with a FAQ this big.

Anyway, I think we can adopt the same philosophy of Mozilla developement so to get documentation going. We could use a FAQ-centric approach where everyone can write a little on whatever and whenever. We could just put them in FAQ drafts released regularly to the appropriate Mozilla forums. Once an FAQ gains a critical, stable mass, it can be broken down into differnt documents or published as is to mozilla.org

This way, anyone can contribute to d11n without learning anything special, and no one needs to wait for a person with cvs access to really publish something. Also, because everyone is so busy, if one person becomes to busy to complete something, another can pick up immediately.

All we need are people willing to manage these FAQs. Here is what we need to do:

- tutorials and FAQs on using cvs

- more end user documentation:
these will be written as Q&As and then released to
Mozilla help files when we have enough contents

- troubleshooting guide:
we needs QA help. We need to review frequently reported bugs as well
as INVALID bugs to see what we need.

So efforts are not duplicated, make an announcement if you intend to
review bugs.

- more d11n on QA:
this is very important because every contributor has to deal with
bugzilla

FAQ sections needing help:

2.4 Should I use my real e-mail address?

Yes, please.

needs something on dealing with spams


_Part II A Short User Guide to Mozilla_

The following guide is applicable mainly for Mozilla 1.0.1

hopefully this claim is accurate.


3 General Mozilla issues



3.1 What features are planned for future Mozilla releases?




Watch this forum.  Feature changes in current development builds will be 
announced here and the announcement board [snip]


Who's going to make the announcement? Me? Or someone else?




Section 4 Security and Privacy




This section is not complete yet.  For information on using Mozilla's 
privacy features, refer to Mozilla online help.


enough said

needs something on dealing with spams




Section 5 Installing Mozilla





5.4 Can I install a newer version over an old one?



Information not available. Contribution welcome.



help




5.5 How do I downgrade from a newer version?



Information not available. Contribution welcome.



help




5.6 What are the known issues?



[snip]



help help




Section 6 Profile and Backup



lots of help needed




6.2 What is the @$%#@$%#.slt directory in my profile directory?




This is called `salting'. Profile data is stored in a randomly named 
directory to make it difficult for malicious programs to find profile 
data. See <http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=56002> and 
<http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=97180>


completed?




6.3 How do I back up my profile data?



completed?




_Files that should not be backed up_



The following files should not be backed up (they will be regenerated 
automatically):

  XUL fast load file:  xul.mfl, xul.mfasl, or XUL FastLoad File



anyone knows where exactly are themes located and if they should be 
backed up?




6.3 Help, I lost my bookmarks/mails/etc.! How do I restore them?



Information not available. Contribution welcome.



help




6.4 How do I share my profile?



Information not available. Contribution welcome.




help



I'll add something on tabbed browser and have it added to help files 
once it becomes stable (bug 129566)




Section 7 Migration





7.1 How do I import Netscape Communicator 4.x profile to Mozilla?





Information not available. Contribution welcome.



help




Section 8. Mozilla Magic





8.1 Where are the hidden preferences?



Information not available. Contribution welcome.



easy one. anyone wanna help?




8.2 Does Mozilla support skin?



Information not available. Contribution welcome.



easy one. anyone wanna help?




Section 9 Frequently Requested Features



this section I'll handle




Section 10 Troubleshooting




Let's get this done.



By the way, I think either we need to make mozilla.org/start/1.0/faq/ 
more printer friendly or we move the whole troubleshooting content to a 
separate, printer-friendly page.  No user should be expected to be 
online to read some troubleshooting guide.




10.2 Graphics sometimes display corrupted and scrolling is slow



Information not available. Contribution welcome.




was talking about ATI graphic cards (and possibly other cards as well). 
anyone wanna do this?




10.3 Redirection limited exceeded



help




10.4 Mozilla cannot use the profile ... because it is in use



I'm not a Linux user. Needs verification




10.5 I have lost my menu bar (or toolbar)!




[snip]

If that does not help and you are using Mozilla 1.0 or Mozilla 1.1, 
click on the small tabs below the window title bar (or below the visible 
toolbars).


needs clarification on what a "small tab" means.




-------------------- >8 ----------------------------

_Part III Contributing to mozilla.org_




Section 12 Quality Assurance




I have meant to complete section 12 and 13 before posting this FAQ. 
However, I am already two days late in posting this article, so I will 
post this as is.


enough said




12.1 What is Quality Assurance?



Read <http://mozilla.org/quality/>



QA intro page must be friendly to all contributors, not just QAs




Also read <http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=176140> what more 
information on what QA people do.


document this, please.




Section 13 Using Bugzilla



help




Section 14 Documentation



weird d11n needs help on documenting itself...




_Appendices_




Appendix A Open Publication License



overkill ?

















    











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