Re: [Firebird-docs] Where to place FlameRobin documentation

[Paul V. <pa...@vi...>]

Hi Nando,

> I succeeded in writing a first piece of documentation for FlameRobin
> (fka fbmanager) in DocBook and integrate it into the firebirddocs
> build just to see the output (which looks nice enough - I just need
> to add some more DocBook tags).

> Once Paul suggested that I put the FR documentation up as a separate
> book, so I have added a <book> section to firebirddocs.xml; is that
> OK? alternatively, I could make it a different set altogether.

> The problem is that I cannot say whether FR will ever actually be
> part of the Firebird project or keep on as a satellite independent
> project.  In the latter case I'm not even sure I should use the
> Firebird-docs build system, although I find it very useful
> regardless.

The discussion about which GUI (if any) to pack with Firebird
distributions is stil raging. Also, like you write above, it's unsure
if FR will be merged with the Firebird project later. So at least for
now we can't include the FR docs in the Firebird docset, as this would
suggest that FR is our officially endorsed GUI.

That said, if you like our doc build system, why not copy it to the FR
project (that's what it's Open Source for) and use it for your docs
(the DocBook sources of which would be committed to FR's CVS tree) ?

Your top level node should IMO be a <book>: FR documentation covers
"only" one tool, so no need for a <set> like with the Firebird docs.

If you do it like this, you can happily manage your docs as long as
FR is an independent project; and if it should ever be merged with
Firebird, the docs would be easy to integrate. Even if the projects
wouldn't merge entirely but FR would become Firebird's officially
recommended tool we could integrate the docs.

For would-be FlameRobin doccers instructions you could link to
  http://www.firebirdsql.org/manual/docwritehowto.html
  (PDF version at:
   http://www.firebirdsql.org/pdfmanual/Firebird-Docwriters-Info.pdf)
or steal the sources and adapt them for FR. Or write your own. Or do
both.


By the way, if you alert us as soon as you guys feel that FR is mature
and robust enough for the average Firebird user, we can at least
include a link in the Quick Start Guide (along with links to other
usable frontends).


Greetings,
Paul Vinkenoog