[Haskell-cafe] Re: [Haskell] Making Haskell more open

[Ketil Malde]

Gour wrote:

>Nobody said that DocBook does not work fine. However let me quote SPJ's
>message: 
>
><quote>
>However, I still wonder if there are things we could do that would make
>it easier for people to contribute.  Here are two concrete suggestions:
>  ^^^^^^^
>- Make it possible for people to add comments, explanations, or
>  questions to
>        * The GHC user manual [currently generated using DocBook]
>        * The Haskell 98 Report
>  The idea would be that anyone could help improve these documents,
>                        ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>  and that, at least in the case of the GHC user manual, we could
>  use the comments to help clarify the text.
></quote>
>  
>
I think it would be ideal to provide the documentation on the web as 
now, but linking to wikified talk pages.  Something like Wikipedia, 
(since MediaWiki was brought up) but perhaps with restricted write 
access to the "feature" pages, and public access to "talk" pages.  The 
"feature" pages could easily(?) be kept in DocBook, if that makes it 
easier for producing printed copy etc.  I don't know about the technical 
side, and my experience isn't all that wide, but I find I really like 
the look and feel of Wikipedia compared to other wikis.

>For those who are satisfied with the present setup or think that
>newsgroups are panacea forthe whole problem - fine.
>  
>
I think newsgroups are a good alternative/supplement to the mailing 
lists - that is, for discussion, just like IRC is a good forum for 
getting immediate help on various things.  For documentation and more 
permanent information, something else is required.

>Following the same logic, we do not need darcs 'cause " Whoever will contribute
>to the GHC/Happy/...with a non-trivial amount of.." code "..has very probably 
>suffered through.." using CVS system :-)
>
I would agree that the threshold needs to be as low as possible, if you 
want as many as possible to contribute.

-k