Re: Eclipse for doc releases

[Chris Despopoulos <despopoulos_chriss -at- yahoo -dot- com>]

I actually looked into this a few years ago. In our case, it was appropriate to have a server-based doc delivery since the product was server based, and different users could have access to different components. The problems of load time for the doc system were NA because the doc server started up with the product.  

I looked at this a few releases ago (pre-Europa), and Eclipse changed its architecture somewhat. The last time I looked I never found an obvious separation of the doc server, and since the idea was abandoned by those above, I quit looking. The old doc subset was very small, and based on Tomcat...  Not sure what's up with Europa and Ganymeade. 

I thought this was an excellent way to go. You can install and serve the docs from the user's desktop (make the server a service so it loads as the machine starts up), from a server on the LAN, from a VM appliance, or from a server on the WAN. It gives you all the usual goodies (search, TOC, etc.) and a great update mechanism.  Plus you have hooks to implement role-based access to doc sets.

Frankly, I believe that in the not-too-distant future we'll all use servers they way we currently use desktop apps. Look at the JEdit text editor for an example of a tiny server that manages what is usually a desktop process. (Overkill?  Perhaps, but it's still interesting.)  Using Eclipse to deliver docs may indeed be appropriate for you, and a good idea. I hope you keep the list posted on your progress.

cud
http://www.cudspan.net



      
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