Re: [docbook-apps] [GSOC] About DocBook WebHelp Project

[Kasun Gajasinghe <kasunbg@gmail.com>]

Hi Visitha,

On 30 Mar 2012, at 03:19 p.m., Visitha Baddegama  
<visithauom@gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi David, Stefan, and Kasun,
>
> Since past few days I had our 3rd year individual project evaluations,
> I could not keep actively this thread..It was finished yesterday and
> now I have more time to involve with webhelp project..But during my
> last busy days, I have gone through lot of resources about webhelp and
> got familiar with docbook and webhelp..
>
> > > To further your exploration, if you like IDEs and build-in
> > > convenience, you should check out the oXygen XML Editor [1]. It's
> > > commercial, but they're generous with licenses for people working on
> > > open source projects. They also include Webhelp from the previous  
> > > GSoC
> > > and the webhelp output in the svn tree [2] includes code that they
> > > have contributed back. oXygen includes assisted authoring for  
> > > writing
> > > DocBook documents, xslts, xproc pipelines, etc.
>
> As David said,  I downloaded oXygen XML Editor. Even though I
> downloaded it I could not go through it too much..I will get familiar
> with it as soon as possible..

No hurry! :-) Do this when you find some time. IDEs are there to make  
your life easier. Since you are a beginner to XSL, get to it probably  
in the last weeks of Community Bonding Period. It's like what we were  
taught when learning Java. Using IDEs in the beginning makes people  
less thinkers.

> > > I'd encourage you to explore XPath and XSLT. XSLT can be a bit
> > > mind-bending at first, but is fun and powerful in the long run. Use
> > > some resources on the web. The DocBook xsls are a great way to learn
> > > xslt since they exercise so many features.
>
> I followed a great tutorial about XPath and XSLT and gathered good
> background knowledge about both of them..According to my point of
> view, XPath is a language which is used to navigate through the XML
> documents and XSLT is used to transform XML documents into XHTML or
> any other type of document. Now I familiar with lots of XSLT and XPath
> Elements, their usages and developed a XML and XSL documents my self
> and converted them to HTML. Then what should I follow about Webhelp's
> technologies?

That's great. Since the project evaluations are over, I hope you will  
now be able to keep us updated about your progress!


> > > But before all that additional exploration, your real next step is  
> > > to
> > > put together a proposal!
>
> I made a draft proposal for webhelp project as a Google doc  and
> shared it.When I get more details about Webhelp and its features, I
> will update it properly. And I will appreciate very much if you can
> guide me to create a strong proposal to webhelp.

I think you already know the basic things needed for the proposal.  
Things like following the template, get mentors' help when in doubt  
etc. Please specify what you just told us about your explorations too  
in the proposal.
We will be able to better assist you if you be specific about the  
issues you have.

Will you be able to provide the samples you created? Just rough work  
is fine.

> > > addition to the ideas on the Webhelp ideas
> > > page on the xmlpress wiki [6]. I'll be happy to priorities the
> > > features presented there, and others on this list using webhelp will
> > > have their own ideas on what should be added, changed, or improved  
> > > in
> > > webhelp and what the priorities should be.
>
> I have gone through the priority feature list and searched about some
> of them. To get more knowledge about these features, what should I do?

Well, when you are done reading  the documentation, and freshen up  
about the technologies needed, you must start understanding the code.  
That's the only way (after webhelp documentation), to understand about  
these webhelp specifc tasks we asked from you. And, the developer docs  
doesn't cover every aspects.
We will definitely help out, but for the sake of the Google Summer  
Code competition, we expect your commitment on this first. Where's all  
the fun and excitement if all the things are spoon-fed? ;-)

As the time goes on further, we'll clear your mind starting probably  
from the webhelp directory structure in svn tree, and specifics about  
webhelp.xsl.


> What are the resources I should follow.?
> Now I am going to read webhelp documentation, gather knowledge about
> XProc and do some GUI testing of webhelp in different browsers. I have
> found some differences in different browsers and I will inform you
> about them in near future. Since now I have more time to dedicate to
> this project, please advise me to get more knowledge about Webhelp
> project..

Why are you interested in XProc? I don't see the need of it for webhelp!
Again, I point you to the source code here.

Cheers,
--Kasun

~~--~~
Sending this mail via my phone. Do excuse any typo or short replies.

> Thank you in advance..!!
>
>
> --
> Visitha Warna Baddegama
> Undergraduate
> Department of Computer Science and Engineering
> University of Moratuwa
> Sri Lanka
>
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