Re: fixing up /usr/doc

[Adam Di Carlo <adam@onshore.com>]

On 29 Dec 1998 01:08:04 +0100, martin@internet-treff.uni-koeln.de (Martin Bialasinski) said:
>>> "BS" == Bruce Sass <bsass@ecn.ab.ca> writes:
BS> This is what I think a "seedocs" system would do (given: seedocs
BS> prg) - determine what package prg belongs to using dpkg - find the
BS> paths to the docs from /var/lib/dpkg/info/package.list - spit some
BS> HTML, containing links through the appropriate filters for the
BS> various formats, into a temp file - fire up the default browser or
BS> a scaled down version of Lynx

> It is much easier to do. If you register all documentation with
> doc-base (I haven't done this for my packages as well), dwww, dhelp
> or a new program can create a page for each package.

Actually, doc-base is intended to provide a system for the consist
registration of metadata about documentation installed by a package
(it can also be used by the local sysadmin).  Therefore, even now (the
metadata system is incompletely implemented) you can do this and it
will take care of dhelp and dwww, which are ways to *present*
metadata.

> So your seedocs package would e.g. call lynx
> /usr/doc/dwww/dpkg/index.html, which would contain links to the
> copyright file (all packages have to have one, so it doesn't have to
> be registered), the registred docs. If they exist, then also a link
> to the README.Debian file and a examples directory.

> Local docs can also be included.

> The logic is already there (doc-base), someone has to find time to
> implement the thing you suggest. I prefer to extend the existing
> dhelp or dwww instead of creating yet another documentation
> management system.

I have already defined a set of metadata, using existing standards
(namely, Dublin Core).  Implementation has stalled as I grappled with
some internal issues I won't bore you with.  Please take a look at
<URL:http://www.debian.org/~aph/debian-metadata.html/>.  Please
redirect any discussion of this to the proper forum,
debian-doc@lists.debian.org.

Personally, I don't think application-centric documentation (i.e.,
show me documentation for jade) is all that interesting to most uses;
it's just now how we generally search for documentation.  But I might
be wrong.

We've (Marcus Brinkmann, mostly) also defined a Debian Document
Heirarchy which would provide a basic 3-level subject catalog scheme
and which is extensible.

I'm glad to see interest in this issue re-surface.  As I am revamping
the Installation Manual at this time, I don't think I'll be able to
start the implementation until after the slink release.  Still,
there's work which can be done to help.  Again, follow-up to
debian-doc if interested.

--
.....Adam Di Carlo....adam@onShore.com.....<URL:http://www.onShore.com/>