Re: Linux users' expectations of online help

[Sean Wheller <seanwhe -at- yahoo -dot- com>]

--- "Eric J. Ray" <ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com> wrote:
> Jean Hollis Weber wrote:
> 
> > 
> 
> Actually, not quite. See Helen, from
> www.software7.biz, for
> creating JavaHelp.

Sun also provides their JavaHelp viewer free. You can
use it stand-alone (already compiled). If you are
using JDK you will most likely just call the class. As
for developing the content for JavaHelp, its easy.

> 
> >> To expect to get a help application comparable to
> 
> I think this argument conflates the issues of
> _users_
> and _developers_. That's like saying that Linux
> users
> are happy w/ vi & emacs, so haven't felt the need to
> create
> an IDE. 

I disagree with you there Eric. Linux has a legacy
documentation system called MAN. The tools for
creating MAN have been around since UNIX. Tools for
all the other help formats also exist.

MAN works just fine for most Linux Users. However,
Windows Users are accustomed to the flashy
presentation layer delivered by the MS Help Engines.

Also Linux users often work via SSH, so formats like
MAN and HTML are better for them. Portability is a
very important concern if you want to use SSH.
Remember Linux is multi-user and multi-session.

I think the problem is that most Windows based Authors
want to see a WYSIWYG tool like RoboHelp or ForeHelp.
This is not available on Linux. But like you say, is
there the need to develop a tool? When the tools
already exist. Perhaps what we are suggesting is that
a feature rich GUI will have to be developed for
Authors, switching to Linux, that are accustomed to
tools such as RoboHelp.

Do they need a tool? Yes, but please let it be based
on Open Standards.

> I think that there hasn't been a compelling
> need for a HAT,
> 
> > This got me thinking about several things.
> > First and most important, although the audience
> for open source apps has 
> > traditionally been Linux users, and Linux users
> 
> True...and Linux is far less geeky than it used to
> be. (Jean,
> I believe that Telestra, your telephone company, is
> looking at just such 
> a switch.) Many Linux distributions (and customized

Agreed. Since the start of the GNOME Project, Linux
has become much more accessible to Windows Users.
Mandrake is the closest to Windows.

Desktops are like KDE and GNOME are also coming closer
together, so it will be even easier for Windows users.

> 
> > To me this means that thousands of former Windows
> users will be bringing 
> > their expectations to Linux-based apps. I would
> 
> Agreed. Right now, the tools are pretty limited.

Again. Its not the tools. Rather its the Windows user
who need to have a GUI in order to develop. The tools
exist and they work. Certainly this is a deficiency of
Linux when viewed from the Windows user perspective.

> 
> Not as far as I know. Unfortunately. I'm sure that
> Docbook can get 
> there, but I haven't reviewed the tools in a few
> years...it's on
> my list of things to do soon, though.

Eric. I am happy to say that Docbook does go the whole
round
trip. The DTD is now very mature and is even moving to
RelaxNG. A XSD has been around for some time.

The Docbook XSLs are also strong. Supporting JavaHelp,
HTML, XHTML, HTML Help, MAN Pages and FO for formats
such as PS, RTF and PDF.

The tool chain is actually very strong. Already we are
seeing the implementation of standards such as
XInclude.

It does not however address the need for a RoboHelp
equiv. that will reduce the learning curve that
Windows based Authors will have if they wish to use
Linux as their development platform.

Interested to hear your thoughts.

Sean Wheller


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