Joerg Bruehe <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote on 07/14/2005 09:35:50 AM: > Hi! > > Jochem van Dieten wrote: > > On 7/14/05, Joerg Bruehe wrote: > > > >> > >>However, the online manual is not cloned, so while we are building 5.0.9 > >>there can also be new text for 5.0.10 changes that gets integrated into > >>the online manual, and this may become visible earlier than 5.0.9 gets > >>published. > > > > > > Why are the online manuals not cloned and versioned? > > That is a question to the Docs team. > IMHO, a versioned _online_ manual would make things more complicated for
> the (Web) visitor. > > > > > One of the things I like about the documentation of most other > > databases compared to MySQL is that it is tightly coupled to a > > specific version of the software. [[...]] > > AFAIK, exactly this will happen - but with the manual that is available > for download. > > IMO, users can/will download the manual for the version they are using, > but the online manual is also intended for those who want to get the > overview before they decide / select a version. > > Jörg > > -- > Joerg Bruehe, Senior Production Engineer > MySQL AB, www.mysql.com > I know (by lurking on other lists) that the documentation team is currently forking the manual into 4.1 and below and 5.0 and above versions and cleaning up the text to be less confusing in each. I know (from past experience) that many version-specific manuals have been made as PDF files. One has been available for all recent releases. I do not know when this practice started so some older releases may not have PDF extracts of the manual availale. I am not sure where to find copies of them for the older versions. I concede that it is not difficult to build a web site that serves different content based on some kind of key value (like version). While it would be possible to make the online manual version-sensitive but it would not be practical with the tools they are using today. Basically, each user would request a version specific page as they browsed through the manual but that would either require separate version-specific copies of the content organized in different directory trees (for static serving) or scripted pages (for dynamic serving). Both have their advantages and drawbacks. However, I do not believe that the documentation team has either the funding or the time to spend managing either kind of site as both would require MUCH more maintenance than their current process. It could be nice to have a version-sensitive online site but I like the fact that I do not need to cross-browse when migrating or managing different server versions, it's all on the same pages. Shawn Green Database Administrator Unimin Corporation - Spruce Pine
