Re: RFC: New debian package - ddoc
On Wed, 30 Aug 2000, you wrote:
> On Fri, Aug 25, 2000 at 07:45:44PM -0700, erik wrote:
> > On Sun, 27 Aug 2000, you wrote:
> > > On Fri, Aug 25, 2000 at 11:20:28AM -0700, erik wrote:
> > > > This is simply an initial announcement of a new debian package called
> > > > ddoc.
>
> cool! don't let them discourage you...
Thanks, I won't :).
> the biggest drawback i can see in coming to linux in general
> or to debian specifically, is that the documentation is
> existent-but-buried, to the point it's nearly hidden. at
> least from the newbie user.
This is exactly the point that ddoc addresses.
> hopefully you can come up with a 'help' alias that newbies
> are likely to try, as well (nobody from mac or windows would
> know to try the 'man' command to get help)!
Unfortuantely "help" is already taken; bash ( which is frequently the
default shell) issues a somewhat cryptic message listing its built in
commands if you type help. My solution is this: When ddoc is installed it
looks for update-menus and if it is there it puts itself on the system
menu under "Help". Then all you need to do is click to start it and from
there everything is a mouse driven browser interface. Very easy.
Otherwise, if you aren't in X you can type "ddoc" and it will start lynx
if its available.
> > >
> > > Have you seen what doc-central does (available as .deb in unstable distro)?
> > > See if you can integrate this functionality in it.
>
> if the doc-central thing they're talking about does what you're
> after, maybe you can help them get going. if not, forge ahead
doc-central didn't really work on my machines - and it immediately
complained if it couldn't find a browser that supports frames. I didn't
really fell like digging through a bunch of python scripts to figure out
what it is supposed to do so I moved on from that - I don't see that it
does any thing that ddoc doesn't already have.
> and expect the thanks of many new debian users. the system is
> really powerful, but us newbies have a hell of a time finding the
> info we need to get our jobs done.
Well, I hope it helps. BTW, you can get the latest version from the
unilinux site:
http://unilinux.sourceforge.net
Follow the link to "Unilinux Project page" and down at the bottom of the
page there is a link to "Anonymous FTP Space" - in there you'll find some
ddoc-0.x.debs. Take the 0.4, and after you download it run (as root)
"dpkg -i ddoc_0.4_all.deb"
It may complain that there are some missing dependancies if you don't have
everything it would like - don't worry, nothing is really broken despite
any ugly messages. Just use "apt-get install (whatever is missng here)"
eg:
"apt-get install boa info2www man2html dwww dhelp"
Or you can just select these in dselect. Dselect will also pick up some
suggested packages that apt-get may miss so I recommend you use dselect.
Then just run "dpkg -i" again and you'll have a nice help system :).
Hopefully it will be `apt-getable' soon and this will be easier but for
now its early so... well, try it out and see.
>
> keep it up! we need all the help we can get! :)
OK, I hope this one helps.
Enjoy!
erik
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