Re: REQUIREMENTS: v0.1 - Feedback requested.

[Kai Wetzel <k.wetzel@welfen-netz.com>]

Two Ducks wrote:
[...]
> ps. I have never written a requirements document, so this may
> be rough on those of you that have.

I like it.  It's short and precise IMHO.

> -----------------------------------------------------------*
> REQUIREMENTS
> Draft version 0.1
> Dec 2, 1997.
[...]
> I.   Help Browser
> ====================
>   i.   Two main graphical components
>     a. A main frame.
>     b. One or more display plugins.
> 
>   ii.  Main frame performs several tasks:
>     a. Document history.
>     b. Document navigation.
>     c. Display plugin management.
>     d. Document window management.

I like this so far.  I've heard many people who think
the MS help browse is pretty good ?  Does it provide
additional features ?  How is indexing/help database
stuff handled (is this even an issue ?)

After the requirement is done, we need an interface
which meets the requirements, I guess.

>   iii. Display plugin performs the following tasks:
>     a. Loads and displays documents of a specified format.
> 
>   iv.  Display plugins are controlled by the main frame.

(Or the browser object which provides the frame, to be
picky ;)

[...]
> II.  Help Interface
> ====================
>   i.   The direct help interface is through fifo pipes, to allow for
>        language independence.
> 
>   ii.  A c/c++ dynamic library is supplied for simpler access.

At a disttent point of time, we could consider using CORBA, too,
if GNOME shows that it operates smoothly without too much overhead.

>   iii. A command line interface provides the basic services to any
> language
>        and direct use by the end user.

Good !

> III. Help Documents
> ====================
>   i.   Documents may be written in any format (though a plugin may not
>        exist for some formats and would therefore have to be written.)
> 
>   ii.  Existing documentation will be used wherever possible.
> 
>   iii. New documents will be written to help achieve the SEUL ideals.

As a distant goal, I'd like to move all documentation to an
SGML based solution with a browser plug-in which shows them
as well as possible.  Maybe even an existing SGML document type
definition can be used for our puposes.  (This shouldn't have
priority, though)  If automatic conversion can be used, even better !

kai