Re: [Scrollkeeper-devel] Simple URI's

[Dan M. <d-...@uc...>]

On Mon, 4 Dec 2000, Nik Clayton wrote:

> On Mon, Dec 04, 2000 at 10:10:25AM -0600, Dan Mueth wrote:
> > On Mon, 4 Dec 2000, Laszlo Kovacs wrote:
> > > > Let the users use bookmarks.  On a network with multiple architectures,
> > > > does "modem-HOWTO" refer to the Linux, FreeBSD, or Solaris document?
> > 
> > Bookmarks won't help here.  Bookmarks do not provide a mechanism for one
> > document to cross-reference another, 
> 
> Nor should they.  Document cross references are going to be a pain in
> the backside, which ever way you cut it.  I don't think is really within
> sk's purview.
>
> [ For example, suppose I have a document that references modem-HOWTO in
>   a link.  What happens to the link if modem-HOWTO hasn't been
>   installed?  Is it active (and generates an error if it's clicked), or
>   is it inactive, or what? ]

The name scheme will make things nice enough that people can
cross-reference and that users can type in simple-to-remember URI's.  It  
will not be a perfect system.  I could always create a document which
tries to cross-reference obscure documents and thus will have broken
links.  I don't think the possibility of broken links should scare us
away from a very useful and powerful tool though.  We can always work
around this in various ways.  A smart help browser could check links
before displaying them (ie. throw out broken links).  Or, a help browser
connected to the Net would not generally have broken links if we have a   
large document database (MetaLab).  

At least in the short term, we could just recommend that people link to
documents that they can confidently say will be there.  For example any
GNOME application can link to docs shipped with gnome-core or gnome-libs
or any other document shipped in the given package.  Even if we discourage
cross-referencing documents that are not provided in the package
dependencies we would still have a very useful tool.  I know that with
GNOME, 99% of the links we want to make between documents are guaranteed
to be functional due to package dependencies.  If we have broken links,
then it is our fault, just like if we have broken images, broken
translations, or broken applications.  If we *really* need to make a link
from foo to bar, then we can always list it in the dependencies.

> > nor do they help a user find a document they've never seen before.  
> 
> That's what the index, table of contents, and free text search are for.

Yes.  But people still type in URL's even though they have search engines,
web portals, bookmarks, etc.  It is just another way to find a document
which in many cases is a lot faster and easier than the other
methods.  No, people won't die without it. But yes, it would be a very
useful tool.

Dan