Python documentation in DocBook

Anton Vredegoor anton at vredegoor.doge.nl
Thu Nov 14 09:40:54 EST 2002


On 13 Nov 2002 23:23:15 +0100, martin at v.loewis.de (Martin v. Loewis)
wrote:

>> I think the questions should be "How many more people would write python
>> documentation if it where easy?"
>
>Easy to answer: Nobody. If you think otherwise, please name one person.

This is not covered by the title of this thread - I don't even know
what docbook is - but this little exchange caught my attention.

For me the format of the contributions to the Python documentation is
a non issue: If a special format like latex would be used it would not
stop me to add contributions, it could even be a challenge and thus
*increase* the likeliness of me contributing.

I don't mind that using diffs to propose source code changes -
although it's hard to do it this way using windows -  is necessary to
escape being an ignorant, and can survive being winked at. 

But I can't seem to get past sourceforge. 

It's not that I couldn't get past the sourceforge barrier if I would
like to do so but having to identify myself using a 128 bits security
key conflicts with my - maybe naive - notion of not looking a given
horse in the mouth. 

Of course, I myself do not accept all the "gifts" certain web pages or
email senders are trying to give me and therefore I can accept a
receiving party wanting to receive a gift only if it's in an unharmful
format.

But still a *donation* should not require the sender to identify with
such extreme security precautions.

To discriminate valuable contributions from spam a kind of spambayes
like procedure could be used, but spamprevention by raising the
squelch level is like sticking the head in the sand or like security
through obscurity.

Maybe I am completely on the wrong track here and in that case:
If someone could remove this little mental barrier for me, preferable
without using brain surgery, my changes of being able to contribute
documentation and source code fixes would increase dramatically.

Regards,
		Anton.



More information about the Python-list mailing list