[Geany] RFC: Setting up a monthly newsleter?

[Lex Trotman]

On 7 February 2011 09:24, Russell Dickenson <russelldickenson at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 7 February 2011 03:00, Frank Lanitz <frank at frank.uvena.de> wrote:
>> Hi,
>>
>> Sorry for the late coming back. Somehow I missed this mail ...
>>
>> On Fri, 21 Jan 2011 22:08:15 +1000 Russell Dickenson
>> <russelldickenson at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> I think this is a *great* idea and am willing to volunteer as a member
>>> of the newsletter team.
>>
>> Cool. Great to hear.
>>
>>> I'm happy to "give it a go" and will let
>>> others judge my work. My time is rather limited at the moment but I
>>> believe I could make a useful contribution. I speak (and write) only
>>> English, I'm afraid, so I couldn't contribute to translations in any
>>> way.
>>
>> As we should start in English, a native speaker could be a great help
>> beside of contributing content also on spell checking, grammar and
>> stuff.
>
> I'll do my best. :)
>
>>> In thinking about the format, I wonder if a blog-style format might be
>>> better than a regular newsletter. I say this only because a newsletter
>>> can be delayed solely because one item is not quite ready. I am the
>>> author and editor of the Frugalware Linux newsletter, so I have some
>>> experience in this area. For the moment I'll await further details and
>>> team members. :)
>>
>> Well, I'm not sure how this could look like. Can you give a more
>> detailed exampled?
>
> For examples of "my" work for Frugalware Linux, look here -
> http://www.frugalware.org and click on the links in the newsletter
> announcements.

Thats the sort of thing I imagined when Frank raised the possibility.
(but larger type please)

>
> The question is: in what format would people like to see the
> newsletter published? The Ubuntu newsletter is published as a weekly
> email, for example. The Frugalware Linux newsletter is published on a
> web site in HTML format. Personally I would prefer that the
> newsletter's content be hosted on a web site instead of sent out via
> email. The hosted method makes it easier to correct errors which may
> occur occasionally. Of course we could announce the latest newsletter
> in the usual Geany ML(s).

+1 for website, then I can't delete it and an archive can be kept in
case it contains stuff that lasts beyond this month.

Which actually would be a good idea, Geany has a fair bit of "hidden"
functionality and a "function of the month" exposing functions of
Geany that people tend to forget would be good, I know I keep
(re)learning new shortcuts.

And a "Plugin of the month" too :-)

>
>> Right now I started to put some content together into a LaTeX-file
>> which will be compiled to PDF and plain text and send out later once
>> its done.
>
> Would you mind sending the finished product to me?
>
> A question to Frank and others - do you mind in what format the
> newsletter's content is written in? I only have experience in using
> HTML and AsciiDoc (http://www.methods.co.nz/asciidoc/). I would *much*
> prefer to use AsciiDoc because it "is a text document format for
> writing notes, documentation, articles, books, ebooks, slideshows, web
> pages, man pages and blogs. AsciiDoc files can be translated to many
> formats including HTML, PDF, EPUB, man page." I know that there are
> similar tools such as "plain text" markup languages but AsciiDoc is
> the one with which I have most experience.

-1 for Latex, I know Frank is a Latexpert but they are a bit thin on
the ground, so having to do contributions in Latex would be limiting
(or would require Frank to do lots of conversion, and we want him to
have more time for other things :-).

As an occasional Asciidoc contributor I hate to say this but...

Perhaps the project should stick to one markup language?  Geany's
documentation is done in reST, a part of Python's docutils which is
used to produce the Python docs.
(see http://docs.python.org/documenting/index.html ).
reST is a "lightweight markup language" quite similar to Asciidoc and
as you can see from the Geany help file produces HTML (and others too
IIRC).

Personal comment, I moved from reST to Asciidoc because I prefer its
source and its output, but the difference in the source isn't huge so
I doubt Russell will have much difficulty.

>
> Assuming we were using AsciiDoc, we could have a master document which
> then draws in content from various contributors and is then converted
> to various formats. This method would make the job of the newsletter's
> editor a little easier since each piece can be edited separately, then
> combined into one document.

Anything that simplifies the process is good if it reduces the time
required of the editor and contributors.  This leads to more
contributions and more regular publication.

>
>> Cheers,
>> Frank
>
> Thanks for your reply.
>
> Another question to everyone - since I am the only person to have
> volunteered so far I'm putting my thoughts out for everyone to read.
> Am I going too far in suggesting formats and tools?
>

Since it seems to be only you and Frank ATM both of you need to be
happy about the tools.

Cheers
Lex

>
> --
> Russell
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