/srv/irclogs.ubuntu.com/2010/02/05/#ubuntu-manual.txt

IlyaHaykinson*sigh*05:09
IlyaHaykinsonok, so i have a lot of technical writers who want to help05:10
IlyaHaykinsonhow should i arrange them?05:10
godbykIlyaHaykinson: Are they wanting to write or edit or what?05:14
godbykDid we get authors to fill in the chapters that had gone dormant?05:15
* thorwil pokes vish 12:52
* vish ouch , wth! was just tweaking the manual title ;)12:52
thorwil:)12:53
thorwilvish: i guess i will try to put some example text into my svg layout template to see if it works out12:54
thorwilvish: any thoughts on using icons and maybe patterns?12:54
vishthorwil: icons , IMO , is not really ideal , i think the way David did with the cursor was good , adding too many icons just seems weird to me12:55
thorwilvish: it would have to be balanced carefully. the cursor is good for making it somewhat clear that it's about computers, but doesn't go beyond that12:57
vishthorwil: we can incorporate the cursor and add a few waves/ripples at the getting started12:58
vish*"Getting started..."12:58
vishthorwil: or just use the cursor as he has done , and add a few abstract patterns on the page...12:59
vishthorwil: IMO , we dont really need to add icons , more than the icons the cursor is sufficient that the book is about a computer.. ,  OR maybe i havent clearly understood your idea13:01
thorwilvish: no, seems your missing a part. it's about the WHY. why read the document? because of things you can accomplish with Ubuntu. so what are those things?13:02
thorwilit would of course also be legitimate to use words. just a list13:04
vishthorwil: we could rather use words on the title page than icons...   several words and a few words sticking out and being more prominent13:07
vishthorwil: then again , we have a title named "Getting started with Ubuntu" which is clear enough what the book is about ;)13:09
thorwilyes, What, not Why ;)13:09
vishwhy... ? "To get started " ;p13:10
thorwilnot to forget that we can't expect readers to have a good idea of what ubuntu is13:10
thorwilvish: why as in motivation13:10
vishthorwil: how is using the categories icons gonna make it any clearer of what Ubuntu is?13:10
thorwilvish: ubuntu is just a means to an end13:11
thorwilvish: i expect that the real goal of a reader is not to get started with ubuntu13:11
vishthorwil: then what would be the real goal?13:12
thorwilvish: but to do one of the mentioned things13:12
vishhmm..13:12
vishthorwil: i didnt really like David's idea with the icons , it looked rather cheesy to me than classy... :(  but maybe you can do it better :)13:13
thorwilof course, there's the aspect of why-not-windows, but the reasons are way to complex to touch them on the title page13:13
vishthorwil: to me it seemed like those children's books ;)13:14
thorwilvish: that comes down to style13:14
vishthorwil: is it ok for the team to not use the lynx in the title page?13:15
thorwilvish: nobody complained yet, which makes me suspect nobody really got (to) that part of my spec, yet13:16
vishhehe ;p13:17
vishthorwil: what are the dimensions to be used?13:17
vishof the page*13:18
thorwilvish: a4 or letter13:18
thorwila4: 210 x 297 mm13:18
thorwilletter: 8½ × 11 inch or 216 × 279 mm13:19
thorwilvish: title page should pick up the margins used inside13:20
vishk.13:22
vishargh! the words run over the lynx :/13:39
vishi guess we have to go with one word per line13:39
thorwilwill .... read .... like ... cpt. .... kirk .... speaks13:40
vishgodbyk: release version number is ?14:47
vishor shall i just mention it as alpha release ?14:47
vishthorwil: ^?14:47
thorwilvish: "Version 0.d, Month dddd" (with the comma or spacing) may appear on pre-releases14:48
thorwilalpha: February 10th, 2010 - Version 0.314:48
vishthorwil: so i'll just change it as feb instead of jan ,is date really needed?14:49
thorwilso: "Version 0.3, February 2010" or "Version 0.3    February 2010"14:49
vishwith the comma looks better..14:50
thorwilvish: just the year14:50
thorwilvish: this detail may very well look slapped-on, as it's a decidedly temporary thing14:51
vishyeah14:51
ivaldoEnter text here...ciao15:01
ivaldosto cercando delle informazioni su come far funzionare la rete wireless con ubuntu 9.0415:02
ivaldoc'e' nessuno15:04
ivaldoc'e' nessuno?15:05
thorwilivaldo: english, please15:05
ivaldoI don't speak english15:06
ivaldodo you know well ubuntu 9.04?15:06
thorwilivaldo: you are on the wrong channel here, sorry15:07
thorwilthis is not a help channel15:07
ivaldook15:10
ivaldothanks15:10
ivaldodo you know an help channel15:11
ivaldo?15:11
thorwilivaldo: try #ubuntu-it, maybe #ubuntu-it-forum15:11
thorwilat least italian ;)15:12
ivaldothanks thorwil  in italia si dice a buon rendere15:16
thorwilawesome, text-align: justify is broken in inkscape15:39
thorwilhow silly of me to think one might be able to do serious, albeit single-page layout with it :/15:40
dutchiethorwil: you can use the bot to direct such confused people to their own channel :)18:09
dutchie!it18:09
manualbotVai su #ubuntu-it se vuoi parlare in italiano, in questo canale usiamo solo l'inglese. Grazie! (click col tasto destro sul nome del canale per entrare)18:09
thorwildutchie: great, ty18:23
dutchieother country codes work too18:23
thorwil!de18:24
manualbotIn den meisten ubuntu-Kanälen wird nur Englisch gesprochen. Für deutschsprachige Hilfe besuchen Sie bitte #ubuntu-de, #kubuntu-de, #edubuntu-de oder #ubuntu-at. Geben Sie einfach /join #ubuntu-de ein! Danke für Ihr Verständnis.18:24
vish!uk18:25
manualbotJoin us for a discussion using the Queen's English in #ubuntu-uk18:25
thorwil!us18:26
manualbotFactoid 'us' not found18:26
vish!jp18:26
manualbot日本語の場合は #ubuntu-jp または #kubuntu-jp を参照して下さい18:26
thorwil!au18:26
manualbotThe Australian Local Community Team has channels here on Freenode. They are #ubuntu-au for technical discussion, and #ubuntu-au-chat for social chatter.18:26
vish!nz18:26
manualbotnz is the New Zealand LoCo Team has a channel at #ubuntu-nz18:26
thorwilbah, uk is most fun18:26
dutchie\o/ uk is always most fun18:27
dutchien18:27
dutchie!love-#ubuntu-offtopic18:27
manualbotLove is like racing across the frozen tundra on a snowmobile which flips over, trapping you underneath. At night, the ice-weasels come.18:27
thorwilluckily ice-weasels are just firefoxes without trademarked artwork18:29
=== dutchie changed the topic of #ubuntu-manual to: Ubuntu Manual Project discussion | Wiki: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-manual | Launchpad: https://launchpad.net/ubuntu-manual | IRC logs: http://irclogs.ubuntu.com | Ubuntu Guidelines: http://wiki.ubuntu.com/IrcGuidelines | Code of Conduct: http://www.ubuntu.com/community/conduct/ | Alpha release in 5 days! Get writing :)
wolterhey thorwil20:35
wolterhas anybody done any artwork lately?20:35
thorwilhi wolter20:35
wolterwhich is not in the wiki?20:35
thorwilwolter: i think vish worked on the alpha title page20:36
thorwilwolter: i wrote the design spec i hope you read20:36
wolteryes20:36
wolteri've come with a new version myself20:36
wolteri didn't know about vish's wip20:36
thorwilwolter: i asked vish to do the necessary to answer Ben's request while you weren't around. sorry about the lack of communication20:38
wolterdo not worry20:38
woltercan i take a look at it?20:38
wolterthis is my new titlepage http://imagebin.ca/view/j4_DZU9B.html20:39
thorwilwolter: honestly not intending to mock you, but a very quick association: welcome to the twilight zone20:40
wolterwhats that?20:41
dutchiethorwil: haha, love the text though20:41
wolteroh20:41
wolterold tv show, says google20:41
thorwilright, that one20:41
wolterdid they have a similar presentation theme/20:42
wolter?20:42
thorwilwolter: though you did a pretty nice job with light and shadow, just limited by trying to keep it bright20:42
woltercan you rephrase?20:43
thorwilwolter: the series has a long history, don't even know it much. it's just this door to another dimension idea (spooky kind)20:43
wolteroh20:43
wolterwell, i was trying to illustrate a context of new world too20:44
wolterfull of light20:44
woltersay, if i wanted to make a cover for a windows manual, i would put this instead20:45
wolterhttp://th01.deviantart.net/fs32/300W/i/2008/218/e/7/savannah_doorway_by_myrainclouds.jpg20:45
thorwilwolter: yes, but to do so, you need a contrast, ending up implying a rather dark/unpleasant here. at least in my eyes20:45
wolterthats a good idea20:46
wolternow i understand what you said about the keep it bright thing20:46
vishwolter: thorwil: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1325768/Cover-Version2lynx-lower.png20:48
wolteroh20:48
wolterok20:48
thorwilvish: you could try to use the extra space between "b" and "t" by placing the "with" there (not sure whether that would work)20:50
thorwilvish: but generally this does the job done, so we should move on20:50
vishyeah20:50
thorwilgets, even, arg20:51
vishthorwil: so I upload one for a4 and one for letter ?20:52
thorwilgodbyk: ^20:52
godbykTitle pages?  Yeah, we'll need an A4 version and a letter version.20:52
thorwilvish: current default seems to be letter20:53
vishk.20:53
godbykI'll catch up on the rest of the conversation in just a moment. (Have to finish typing this email response.)20:53
vishi'll tag them appropriately , so the team can use it correctly20:53
godbykOkay, email sent. Now let me catch up on the last 10 hours of conversation real quick. :)20:54
godbykWho's David and what's the cursor thing?20:57
thorwilgodbyk: David made the colorful title page proposals20:57
thorwilcursor thing: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-manual/Artwork/Initial_Proposals?action=AttachFile&do=get&target=ubuntumanual_theclick_inside1_byKolorGuild.png20:58
vishgodbyk: how was /Team images/screenshots/title.png , generated? it has artifacts.. :(21:02
godbykvish: Not sure, I didn't generate that.21:02
vishthe lynx's nose is messed up and there is an odd smudge on the page21:03
godbykI take the svg you guys provide, pipe it through inkscape and output a PDF.21:03
vishgodbyk: we need to watch out for that21:03
godbyk(Though inkscape likes to eat a few bits along the way, apparently.)21:03
godbykYeah, that's something that inkscape does.21:03
godbykI'm not sure how to fix it at the moment.21:03
vishgodbyk: hmm , odd. it inkscape here doesnt do that21:03
godbykReally?21:04
thorwilare there radial gradients, blur, clipped elements in the SVG?21:04
godbykrun make clean, and then run "make coverpage.pdf"21:04
godbykthen look at the PDF and see if it appears mucked up.21:04
vishgodbyk: i dont get an error like that, the above png was using inkscape21:04
godbykPNGs are fine, PDFs not so much.21:04
vish> http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1325768/Cover-Version2lynx-lower.png21:05
vishgodbyk: yeah , but that png itself is corrupted21:05
godbykWhat PNG?  I don't make any PNGs (I don't think).21:05
vish /Team images/screenshots/title.png21:05
vishgodbyk: i didnt mean _you_ ;)21:06
vishgodbyk: just saying we , need to watch out for those errors :)21:06
godbykgodbyk: Gotcha.21:06
godbykI'm going to be working on the interior book design soon (to take a break from the translation side of things).21:12
godbykAny specific comments are needs that haven't been addressed yet?21:12
thorwilgodbyk: i created an a4 layout template in inkscape21:12
godbykthorwil: Cool.  Is it in the repository? Or can you link me to it?21:13
godbykFixing the margins is one of the top items on my list (for both letter and A4).21:13
thorwilthen found out that inkscape has a "justify" button, but doesn't actually justify text. aside of other issues with working with text21:13
godbykI'm still trying to get fonts for all the languages we're supporting too.21:13
godbykthorwil: Yeah, I've found inkscape to be lacking when it comes to working with text.21:14
thorwilso now i'm working with scribus to create that layout again, to be able to include example text21:14
thorwilgodbyk: http://bazaar.launchpad.net/%7Et-w-/%2Bjunk/ubuntu_manual_cover/download/head%3A/layout_a4.svg-20100128134918-yenbpm0zvsr3vg5l-1/layout_a4.svg21:15
thorwilgodbyk: there are 2 layouts in there, one solely based on golden ratio divisions of the page21:16
thorwilgodbyk: the other ... well, unhide the "zick zack" layer21:16
godbykokay.  (waiting for inkscape to load)21:16
thorwilwolter, vish: you might want to have a look at that, too21:17
thorwilmy concerns were to stay above 7 mm page margins, have all distances either equal or clearly distinct, all distances in harmony, every rectangle one might see on the page with good proportions21:18
vishthorwil: thats the same earlier one you showed right?21:20
thorwilgodbyk: btw, paragraph first line indent shouldn't be combined with space before paragraph (or margin-top for css people)21:20
thorwilvish: no, revised margins21:20
* vish looks21:20
godbykthorwil: I agree.  Those were inherited settings.21:21
godbykThat's why I'm going to clear away everything and start fresh.21:21
godbykSo there's one coherent design.21:21
thorwilvish: more inner margin in case it will be perforated21:21
godbyk(As opposed to trying to incorporate some former elements and not others and trying to figure out which is which.)21:21
thorwilgodbyk: excellent. by chance ever read tschichold? :)21:22
godbykthorwil: Yep.21:22
* thorwil hugs godbyk 21:22
godbykClearly, inkscape hates me today and wants to eat my processor and not actually show a window.21:22
godbykthorwil: Heh.. I've got a whole shelf of books on typography and whatnot.21:23
godbykfinally, inkscape popped up.21:28
godbyknow I can take a look at the page layout.21:28
godbykthrWhat are the dark areas at the top?21:28
thorwilgodbyk: area for page number and running header (or whats it called)21:29
thorwilso it's height only defines where the main text starts21:30
wolterok ill have a look thorwil21:30
godbykHey, thorwil, if I can quiz you on some of the dimensions real quick, I can plug it into the manual and we can see what it looks like.21:32
thorwilgodbyk: ok21:33
thorwilgodbyk: outer margins (around bound main and margin-notes): outer: 11.703 mm21:34
thorwilinner: 30.63921:34
thorwiltop 16.55221:34
thorwilbottom: 26.78121:35
thorwilheader height: 26.78121:35
thorwilmargin-note width: 33.39921:35
thorwil(gap between margin and main: 4.47)21:36
godbykOkay. Let me generate the PDF and see if I got them all plugged in right.21:37
vishgodbyk: i rendered the svg as png and pushed to branch21:37
* vish didnt notice any artifacts , but if other double checked it would be nice :)21:37
vishothers*21:37
thorwilgodbyk: that's the "phi" layout, btw21:38
wolterill do21:41
thorwilgodbyk: what do you suggest as body text size?21:42
godbykthorwil: What's the distance from the top of the page to the top of the main text block (ignoring the running head)?21:42
godbykthorwil: It depends on the fonts we go with.21:42
godbykGenerally, 10 pt is a good starting place.21:42
thorwilgodbyk: 43.33321:43
wolteroh vish, why would there be artifacts in the png?21:45
wolteri tell you one thing, the coverpage is using the svg and it is not rendering well21:45
wolterthere is some code overlaying 'ubuntu21:45
wolter' on the top21:45
wolterand the lynx has a severe layers problem21:46
wolteranyway, i'm off..21:46
vishwolter: this one currently in the branch has artifacts :(   /Team images/screenshots/title.png  , it messed up the lynx' nose21:46
godbykthorwil: Does this match your layout? http://kevin.godby.org/private/ubuntu-manual/main-a4-thorwil.pdf21:47
godbykIt looks like the main text block is sitting too low on the page.  The running head really only consists of one line of text, so it doesn't need to be as tall as you have it in your layout.21:47
thorwilgodbyk: too much space above the running head21:49
vishhmm , godbyk why do the links break alignment?21:51
vishex: page 821:51
godbykvish: Under the contact details section?21:52
vishyeah21:52
godbykThe links don't break the alignment.21:52
vishits better to have them each in a single line there21:52
godbykWhat happens is that if TeX can't hyphenate a word, then it occassionally is allowed to run outside the margins.21:53
thorwilenough for today, cya!21:53
godbykYeah, that whole paragraph needs to be rewritten anyway.21:53
vishgodbyk: looks pretty impressive for an alpha :)21:57
godbykvish: Things will get a lot more interesting when we start with translations.21:59
godbykThe languages using the Latin alphabet (or extended-Latin) are fairly easy to deal with.21:59
vishgodbyk: how will they handle title page translation?21:59
godbykLanguages using others scripts are more difficult.  I have to find typefaces that support those languages. Make sure the layout accommodates them, etc.21:59
godbykWe may have to manually translate the title page and just have one title page per language in the repository.22:00
godbykThen our code will just select the appropriate title page to include based on the language (and paper size).22:00
vishgodbyk: can be superimpose the translation on the title page? use a translatable string there?22:01
godbykPossibly, but we'll probably want to handle it manually so we can deal with alignment problems and other tweaks.22:01
godbykThere's no telling how the size of the English title will be in comparison to the size of the title in other languages.22:02
vishas a rule of thumb if we stick to center align , it might work22:02
godbykPossibly.22:03
godbykRemember that some languages read right-to-left or vertically.22:03
vishyeah :s22:03
godbykSadly, I only speak English.  So I'm relying on the translation teams to help me out with a lot of that stuff.22:04
godbykFor instance, I'm having a heck of a time finding a typeface that does a good job with the Telugu script.22:05
godbykThe ones I've tried so far aren't placing the vowels nicely.22:05
vishhuh.. there is someone translating it to telugu o.0  interesting22:07
godbykhttps://translations.launchpad.net/ubuntu-manual22:08
godbykIt's getting translated to lots of languages.22:08
godbyk(click View All Languages in the bottom right of that page)22:08
vishpretty neat..22:11
godbykI think it's pretty awesome.22:11
godbykI'm trying really hard to make sure the manual looks as good in Telugu, for instance, as it does in English.22:11
godbykAnd that's pretty hard since I know virtually nothing about Telugu. :-)22:12
* dutchie pokes launchpad's imports22:12
godbykUh oh.. don't piss off the translators again, dutchie! :-)22:12
dutchiethis is to help me avoid pissing off the translators22:13
godbykDid we ever figure out how to make it so it didn't reset everything each time we uploaded our new text?22:13
dutchieI think I fixed it22:13
godbykcool22:13
vishi think the merges were the problem22:13
godbykdutchie: Is there a way we can add just a plain boring text file to the list of 'translations' that may contain things that need to be translated or simple questions for the translators to answer?22:14
godbykSome of the languages aren't in the polyglossia package yet, and I've been emailing individual translators for help.  But if I could add the handful of strings I need translated to a file that gets sent to the teams, it'd be easier.22:15
godbyk(I also need to get some suggestions on typefaces for each language, page size, date format, etc.)22:15
* dutchie will have a look22:16
godbykThanks.22:17
godbykbrb.. gonna fix a sandwich.22:18
c7pi want to ask sth about translations. When the text of the manual will be permanent (or at least a chapter)? so we can know when to start translating? When the writing team modifies a string and updates the database then the whole string translation is lost. The result is very annoying for translators. We had translated 500 + strings before the recent update and now the translated strings are 146. brb22:18
dutchiec7p: sometime after the beta22:23
godbykback22:26
c7pback22:27
c7pdutchie: thank you22:27
c7pcya22:44

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