Re: New editor - Martin Wheeler
Hello,
On Wed, Nov 11, 1998 at 08:30:58AM +0000, Oliver Elphick wrote:
> Martin Wheeler <mwheeler@startext.co.uk> has been added to the list of
> CVS users.
I want to welcome you, Martin. It's always nice to get help in an enormous
task that'll probably never be finished.
> On Tue, 10 Nov 1998, Oliver Elphick wrote:
> > Please let me know what area of the
> > DDP you are interested in.
>
> Currently -- corrections to spelling; and gross misuse of the English
> language -- across all docs!
> (I'm a proof-reader, among many other things; and I've got to the point
> where I just can't take yet another instance of :
> definately;
> independant;
> it's [for possessive]
> etc., etc.
> It's slowly driving me nuts.)
Great! As a non-native english speaker, I learn by doing, and we should
certainly make sure our texts are exemplary.
> This is an important part of our primary interface with the user, and it
> deserves far better presentation treatment than it's currently getting.
> It's a doddle for me to correct, where it's probably hell on wheels for
> non-native writers.
You hit the nail on the head!
> (Or even a native-speaker who didn't benefit from the
> sort of teachers I had in the 1940s and '50s -- who were themselves
> trained in Victorian schools. Anally retentive nitpickers, all of 'em.)
> I put together a whole load of minor corrections about a year ago, but the
> mechanics of checking them against the master texts and then getting
> them to the DPP team were so frustrating that I gave up in despair.
> (Really.)
If at any time some process within Debian is annoying to you, I hope you let
us know. There is always a way to make something better/easier/whatever, and
quite some people are happy to help if they only know about the problem in
the first place.
> even tho' my preferred DTD is TEI tech-doc, not
> docbook. And -- sorry! -- certainly not QWERTZ/linuxdoc/debiandoc.]
Martin, is the DTD available in the public and debian free? Are stylesheets
availabel and Debian free? Is there free documentation for tei? If at least
some of the questions can be answered with yes, I'd like to package them for
Debian. However, it would be great if you have URL's handy, I know about the
primary SGML site, but finding somewhere there can be quite difficult.
> My specialist field is language and linguistics -- and for
> over a dozen years now,
My girl friend is studying linguistics. I was amazed by the amount of
computer power used for linguistic research.
> document engineering as well (note: *without* the
> sneering prophylactic double quotes seen recently on the list).
Maybe you are interested in doc-base. As you have lurked here, you pretty
sure know what I am talking about: The debian document repository (and it's
presentation to the user). The document hierarchy needs a lot of work, and
the repository is still in the design phase. You seem to be qualified to aid
in the design (we use RDF, I think). I would like to hear your comments!
> I lurk on a fair number of lists on the debian side -- debian-mentors,
> debian-devel, beowulf, etc., as well as a fair number on the SGML/tech.
> doc side.
>
> The only code hacking I consider I would be any good at would be in the
> field of computational linguistics (not in great demand); so if I can
> contribute to the Debian effort in any other area (e.g tech. doc.) then
> I'm only too happy.
Well, presenting the documentation available to the user in a convenient
qualifies as a computational linguistics task, in my book at least (although
I am aware that this is not the main focus ;).
> And I guess that's about it, really.
This is pretty much, actually. I am happy that you want to help out here!
Thank you,
Marcus
--
"Rhubarb is no Egyptian god." Debian GNU/Linux finger brinkmd@
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