[Geany] RFC: Setting up a monthly newsleter?

Tue Feb 8 10:26:35 UTC 2011

Am 07.02.2011 23:50, schrieb Russell Dickenson:
> On 8 February 2011 04:21, Frank Lanitz <frank at frank.uvena.de> wrote:
>> 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.
> 
> Sorry but I don't understand what "cc" means. :P

Should have been CSS ;)

>>>> 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?
> 
> I'll volunteer for this role. You need to know, though, that I am
> learning Geany so my explanations are likely to be quite simple. This
> may be a good thing because as I learn I can write about what I have
> learned in the newsletter. I'll need someone who is more familiar with
> Geany to check my work though.

Great! Welcome aboard! Just ask if you have any question. I'm sure the
list likes helping you out!

>>>>>> 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.
> 
> I would prefer not to have to learn something like LaTeX but since
> there's a Geany plugin available, I'm happy to stick with LaTeX for
> the moment. As you suggest, Frank, since we're not writing complex
> documents I don't expect the LaTeX markup used to be very complex.
> I'll probably be doing a little cut-and-pasting if that's OK.

;)
You can have a look at

http://git.geany.org/newsletter/tree/newsletter_1.tex

Maybe its getting interesting at
http://git.geany.org/newsletter/tree/newsletter_1.tex#n38

Let's see how it goes. ;)

>>>> 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.
> 
> In fact perhaps we should stick with LaTeX for the moment, Frank?
> Since you have experience with this already, creating the necessary
> Makefile should be easier than creating one for reST (or is it ReST
> ?).

Yes, I can do it.
I suggest outpout shall be plain text for email newsletter. PDF for FTP
and HTML for some homepage, right?

>>>>> 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.
> 
> I am using a master document for the Frugalware Linux newsletter for
> various reasons which probably don't apply to the Geany newsletter. I
> am comfortable using Git and agree that there's no need at the moment
> for a master document.

Maybe using a masterdocument would be nice if somebody is working on
some content and its not clear which 'release' it will be added. So we
could do something like a busstop strategy for newsletter. But this is
far away from being needed I guess.

Cheers,
Frank