Re: [boost] [proposal] The boost.org Maintenance Effort

Subject: Re: [boost] [proposal] The boost.org Maintenance Effort
From: Dean Michael Berris (mikhailberis_at_[hidden])
Date: 2010-05-27 23:08:34

On Fri, May 28, 2010 at 9:23 AM, David Abrahams <dave_at_[hidden]> wrote:
> At Thu, 27 May 2010 10:48:18 -0400,
> Beman Dawes wrote:
>>
>> What about the developer (me, for example, and the filesystem library)
>> who doesn't want a blog, doesn't want to develop a separate community,
>> and prefers to continue to use the main boost mailing list for
>> discussions.
>>
>> Would I have to do anything different? In particular, would any aspect
>> the HTML files in boost-root/libs/filesystem/doc change?
>
> I think, as long as you phrase it so broadly, the answer is likely
> “yes.”  For example, I imagine that the presentation of those files on
> the website might change a little.
>

Mostly the headers and the CSS would change to be consistent with the
new system. However they will remain to be HTML files generated the
same way.

>> Can I continue to use plain-old-HTML and my old WYSIWYG HTML editor?
>
> We *can't* make a system that doesn't support those formats, or we
> wouldn't be able to serve tons of existing documentation.
>

The answer is yes, you can continue to do HTML as long as you're
willing to do so. ;-)

>
>> One of the frustrations with trying to understand Wordpress is that
>> everything Google finds has to do with online use of a Wordpress web
>> site. Does Wordpress have no tools for regular offline desktop
>> WYSIWYG HTML editing?
>
> That's out of scope for WP. Â If you want to edit HTML offline on your
> desktop there are plenty of good applications out there. Â It wouldn't
> make sense for WP to maintain a another desktop HTML editor just so it
> could interface with WP sites.
>

The reason the only thing Google finds about Wordpress editing
requires an online installation of Wordpress is that it's the only way
that makes sense for managing a Wordpress installation. It's not a
documentation system (like Sphinx or Jekyll or Hyde or Quickbook) but
it's a publishing system. It just so happens to have a very nice
WYSIWYG editor that works from within a browser.

Dave is actually right that this is out of scope for Wordpress -- it's
a publishing platform that is meant to make online publishing easy.
That assumes you have an existing place to publish to, and that's also
where you would generally input your content.

Like Dave suggested, Wordpress has an API that other tools are already
integrating with. If you *really* want to do desktop-based publishing
on Windows you might want to try Windows Live Writer [0] -- which is
meant to manage blogs that are hosted in most of the popular blogging
platforms. Last time I checked it has great support for Wordpress.

If you are just thinking about writing library documentation, you can
go about the current process with little to no change in the process
-- if you write Quickbook, RST, or plain HTML, that should be just
fine. Just be prepared to support a new stylesheet when the time comes
to migrate to the new look & feel.

HTH

[0] http://windowslivewriter.spaces.live.com/

-- 
Dean Michael Berris
deanberris.com