New Manual?

[richb]

Another good thing might be a complete and very detailed "video guide" on installing, configuring, updating, upgrading, tweaking and making it (mx) your very own.

http://www.mepiscommunity.org/videos/mx14

[Jerry3904]

A heads-up to everybody who indicated they could help: Gordon and I are near the end of a full alpha, and will have it posted for the beta work by the end of this week.



I will be looking for specific help in areas such as
--writing (e.g., Basic Use)
--editing (e.g., Installation, Configuration)
--working with links (checking, adding, deleting)
--collecting screencaptures (for the whole thing)

Our deadline will be one month later, at which point it needs to go live as a beta.

TIA

[SilverBear]

I am NOT suggesting we do this now, for the first edition. That would be too complicated. BUT. . .
. . .as a near-future project, I'd like to suggest that we (and by "we" I mean: ???) put out a Manual for MX that is in HTML 5. The old Mepis Manuals were XHTML + CSS 2. That was IMO the most advanced/versatile on-line/on-disk formating I could work with at the time. Since the design of the Mepis 7 - 11 manuals, HTML5 & CSS 3 have been developed.

The big advantage to html 5 would be the ability to embed both pix and VIDEO . . . from anywhere on the WWW, so long as the user has an internet connection. If s/he isn't online, those functions would be temporarily unavailable to her/him without adversely affecting the rest of the document. We'd probably still have to either go CSS 2 or a very conservative & judicious use of CSS 3, as some of it's "way kewl" features are not yet supported by some browsers. Especially since we are "marketing" MX as a "mid-weight" distro, we have to add the formatting tech advances we can while still keeping in mind the limitations our target users may have.

I've been playing around with HTML 5 and CSS 3, as an excuse that when I finally resurrect SBlinux.org, it should be a state-of-the-art website. Just as in the day that when I'd developed the xhtml/css_2 fly-out menu for SBlinux.org and was then able to use redesigned a version for the Mepis manuals, maybe my current tinkering could be put to use for MX.

Any thoughts, pro or con?

[Jerry3904]

Out of my league, and certainly not even imaginable ATM given the available time.

[SilverBear]

Out of my league, and certainly not even imaginable ATM given the available time.

True -- at this time, not realistically on the table as a realistic project goal that can be slated. After we get the current MX manual project out, I could tinker with it as a side project. If I get something you like, it could possibly serve as a template for continued use & tweaking over the next few years.
According to my records, the last version of the Mepis manual that I actually worked on was v 8.5. You and the crew appear to have done a great job of just using the basic manual template (that we hammered out in producing 7, 8 & 8.5) to come out with version 11. If (and I don't know for sure at this point, of course) but if it's done right, a similar HTML 5 manual template could serve for future versions, by just replacing relevant text and plugging in new sections based on the existing design. A whole different "look" would involve changing the CSS. Changing the content would be relatively simple. That is the new intent: separating style/design from content. CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) will handle almost everything about design and appearance. HTML 5 (HyperText Markup Language) will deal mainly with content. It's similar to XHTML --but more so.

The "semantic content" aspects of HTML 5 are SO improved that --once set up-- maintainence and revision of content does not require the "html guru" reliance to the same extent that has prevailed in previous html versions. I'm not at all tied into the html dev scene, but I'm thinking that they've tried to redesign things so that html should be less esoteric and more accessible to people who know what they want to put up online, but were stymied by the arcane Rube Goldberg formatting solutions that grew up between HTML_1 and HTML _4/XHTML development.

At this stage, it's just about conceiving possibilities. And a very good point was made: "out of my league." That's what webdesign has been! I may have a decent grasp on html_4/xhtml and css_2, but when we were working on redesigning the Mepis website for Warren, I just couldn't be of any use. "Drupal" is no doubt a very efficient platform --but I just can't wrap my head around that approach. Maybe I'm deficient in database savvy. That's the way Drupal works: taking a database approach to html/css. Fortunately, we had a professional Drupal guru (peregrine ) who has been indispensible.

While HTML 5 is not going replace Drupal nor other website/database solutions for maintaining complex websites, it is going to make simple hypertext documents much more "do-able" for more people as time goes on. I'm just starting the conversation about how and why we might consider using the currently upcoming standards. It will require pondering & planning before it gets serious.

[Jerry3904]

Sounds good!

[Gordon Cooper]

As part of my contribution to the Manual! Please tell me what you use for 1. Browsing 2.Email.

To avoid cluttering this Forum, you can reply directly to me.

Thanks,
Gordon.

[Gaer Boy]

As part of my contribution to the Manual! Please tell me what you use for 1. Browsing 2.Email.

To avoid cluttering this Forum, you can reply directly to me.

Thanks,
Gordon.

If that is addressed to Forum members generally, it may be best to start a new topic.

Meanwhile, 1. Iceweasel, 2. Thunderbird.

Phil

[Jerry3904]

Gordon, I'm not clear who you're speaking to here and why you want this information.

[Gordon Cooper]

Jerry,
Will probably put a short list of the mail & browser programs being used with MX in Section 4.1