[Geany] RFC: Setting up a monthly newsleter?

[Frank Lanitz]

On Mon, 7 Feb 2011 12:21:00 +1000
Russell Dickenson <russelldickenson at gmail.com> wrote:

> >> 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.
> 
> Thanks.

I guess depending on the markup language we are choosing in the end,
generating a HTML with some nice cc should be the smallest issue as
nearly all of them do support such thing. 

> > 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 :-)
> 
> I agree. A feature/plugin focus of the month would be useful. I know
> that it takes me a while to get to know an application like Geany
> well. Focusing on a particular feature would make the learning process
> easier for people like me. As someone who likes to tweak configuration
> settings, hints on these topics would also be useful I believe.

In fact this is a nice idea. I'm asking who like to take over this task
and provide something like this on a monthly basis for the newsletter?

> >>> 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 :-).
> 
> Yes. Sorry, but I not likely to contribute if I have to learn
> something like Latex. It's not something I'm using now, nor likely to
> use any time in the near future so I'm simply not motivated to learn
> it.

I don't care much about the markup language. LaTeX on our level is not
more complicated as writing ReST etc. I guess. 

> > 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).
> 
> That's the one I was trying to think of! Thanks, Lex, for reminding
> me. I included AsciiDoc only as an example. I don't want to complicate
> things too much so would be happy to use reST. I currently use
> AsciiDoc for other projects but I see no reason to try to force it
> upon other people when a similar tool is already in use and doing its
> job well.

OK. Let's give ReST a try. I guess we will need to have a makefile
which is generating the output we need. Who likes to do this? Also I
think this should be done after volume 1 has been send to public. 

> >> 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.
> 
> I'll look into options available via reST. Even if it doesn't offer a
> "master document" option natively, I'm sure a custom solution could
> easily be created.

As mentioned: With usage of git there is no real need to have such
thing like a master document as its possible to edit without having
unsolvable conflicts. 

Cheers, 
Frank 
-- 
http://frank.uvena.de/en/
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