[seul-edu] Request for feedback on html-based gnome help system

[Roger R Dingledine <arma@mit.edu>]

Shlomi mailed this to me at seul@seul.org, and I'm forwarding it
on to places that might find it interesting.
I've put the tgz at http://www.mirrors.seul.org/first_help.tar.gz
and I've extracted the tarball such that you can start at
http://www.mirrors.seul.org/helpsys/gmc-help/navigation.html
(These urls aren't permanent, but I'll leave it around for a couple
of months.)

Anyway, please include a cc to Shlomi on your response. I've included
the readme file below.

Thanks,
--Roger

*************************************************************************

So far it contains the help for navigating the file system in GNOME,
but if things go right then it'll encompass more things than that,
and it'll be done for KDE as well.

View the HTML files through Netscape, beginning with
gmc-help/navigation.html

The elements used are font features (bold etc), hypertext, pictures
and a little Javascript-coded forms, if any.

Before I embark on expansion of the help system, there are the following
I would like you to tell me:

1. Is it required? (from what I've heard, yes, Linux is lacking in
   documentation, but perhaps this niche has already been filled).
2. Is it clear enough for the "stupid" (read ex-MS) user?
3. Is this form of help good enough?

and any other answer which refers to the very necessity of this work.
For I need some feedback before I continue.

In the readme folder I have one file so far, main.txt. Please read it.

This specific help is targeted towards the GNOME project, but help
for Linux should not be exclusive to any platform (in other words, I
do not wish to widen the already great rift between GNOME and KDE).

What I ask is, if the help-system is deemed acceptable for the
new user, that the documents shall fall under a GNU-Copyleft license.
I'm a staunch supporter of Stallman's goals and I will not have the
documentation become non-free.

After reading some items like "What is a directory?", you may ask who
will be reading such a help after installing Linux (that is, anyone
who's installed Linux must know what a directory is!). I set my sights
towards a near future where Linux is either so easily installed into
a graphical mode (xdm) or always comes pre-installed on the machine.
The main objective is to avoid as far as possible any contact with
the dreaded command-line (I like command-lines, non-technical users
definitely do not).

Your feedback is important to me.

Thanks in advance,
                        Shlomi Tal.

Empires rise and fall; contributing to Linux is fun.

GNU's Not Unix; Linux Is Not Uni Xeither.