Salix Start up Guide 13.1.2 [DONE]

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tsuren
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Re: Salix Start up Guide 13.1.2 - 13.2

Post by tsuren »

For the time being, i will keep the VoIP part as it is. I thought about it for some time if i put that in or not when i was preparing the table. At the end, I thought people nowadays are interested in mobile solutions more and more. So they would probably want to see a VoIP included in a Linux distro. Some have already done so. I am not advocating that we should do the same, but i think it is a good idea to let users know what we do not ship out with the ISO.

Change log
1. fixed the spelling mistakes pointed out by gapan
2. "man salix" is now added in the support section
3. "packages that are different from Slackware" is now added (p. 16)
4. put more space between some texts and the header (to be honest, i cannot put more space inbetween more than this, screenshots will go crazy on OpenOffice.org

The OP updated
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djemos
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Re: Salix Start up Guide 13.1.2 - 13.2

Post by djemos »

Tsuren, Very good job. Congrats. And happy new year.

1) In Appendix Page 36 for kde edition i think kwrite is also "Integrated Development Enviroment" since have the same capabilities with geany. I use it for making code and scripts all the time.

2) Also for cd ripping k3b can extract sound cd trucks in mp3, ogg, flac format.

Also kaudiocreator works fine having kmix repackaged from kdemultimedia (i will check it to be sure ) does not need the whole package kdemultimedia.

3) About VoIp. There are already mumble packages in people.salixos.org (mumble is open source) and teamspeak which is not open source. Also skype is not open source.
We can have, at least, mumble in repos so users can use it. And can have a how to in wiki for users who want to set up a murmur server and mumble client to talk to each other.
I can write an article in wiki.

As an idea, later, can add some explanations for kde apps and how they work in startup guide.
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tsuren
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Re: Salix Start up Guide 13.1.2 - 13.2

Post by tsuren »

djemos wrote: 1) In Appendix Page 36 for kde edition i think kwrite is also "Integrated Development Enviroment" since have the same capabilities with geany. I use it for making code and scripts all the time.
The problem I have in kwrite being part of IDE is that it is identifying itself as a text editor and categorising itself as such in Utility. You can say that I some times use leafpad to edit my codes, but I cannot say that it is nothing more than a notepad. Geany - although it is still a kind of notepad (with build and execute function), and probably just a "notepad plus", it is identifying itself as an IDE, and we put them in Development.

I agree with you in principle, but I would say that saying kwrite can be used to edit/make codes and scripts alone cannot be a sufficient reason to be placed under IDE. The application must identify itself as such in order to do so.

So I will keep the thing as it is for the IDE part.
djemos wrote: 2) Also for cd ripping k3b can extract sound cd trucks in mp3, ogg, flac format.
Also kaudiocreator works fine having kmix repackaged from kdemultimedia (i will check it to be sure ) does not need the whole package kdemultimedia.
OK, I will add that.

djemos, I am adding only the packages that come with Salix ISO images (standard and livecd). If Kaudiocreator is in the extra repo, then I will not add it in the start up guide. If it will be added in the 13.2, then please let me know, I will add them in for the Start up guide 13.2. :)
djemos wrote: 3) About VoIp. There are already mumble packages in people.salixos.org (mumble is open source) and teamspeak which is not open source. Also skype is not open source.
We can have, at least, mumble in repos so users can use it. And can have a how to in wiki for users who want to set up a murmur server and mumble client to talk to each other.
I can write an article in wiki.
In my opinion, if applications are of open source or not is of lesser importance from users' points of view. Of course, I will be against to include Skype in Salix, for example. Having said that one cannot deny the importance of VoIP, and if mumble or ekiga or whichever free and open source applications are available, we think we should consider their inclusion in the future.

As for now, mumble is still on your personal repo, I will not put it in the start up guide. If it is included in the official repo, I will create a section on how to install and set up mumble (under Your Salix). Perhaps you can help me with the article and screenshots then.
djemos wrote: As an idea, later, can add some explanations for kde apps and how they work in startup guide.
This is in my plan. Right now my computer is super slow, but screenshots and brief explanations of applications that come with Salix KDE full install will be there in the guide!

Thank you very much for your feedback, djemos!
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Shador
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Re: Salix Start up Guide 13.1.2 - 13.2

Post by Shador »

laprjns wrote:Page Format - I really like the layout but it seem to me that on every page the first line of text is jammed up against the header. I think adding a little white space between the header and text will result in a better visual balance of the page.
I second this. Generally spoken more empty white space gives a layout a more professional look.
To me it seems like the top and the bottom are somewhat unbalanced. Maybe move the whole content a bit closer to the bottom edge.
Replacing the hard edge of the header with a transition (fading or shadow) could possibly improve the appearance too.

Some of the accentuation (bold or bold + link) also seem a bit strong compared to the headlines.

I'm not quite fond about the image quality. If somehow possible consider higher quality when creating the PDF. I guess the original images are not the problem.

I also noticed some inconsistencies etc.:
p. 3:
Consider moving the bonsai tree in front of the first paragraph a bit more to the left.
The "Salix Features" list uses a different indentation than other lists.
"come with a" instead of "comes"

p. 7:
First letter in the list suddenly not anymore capitalized.

p. 13:
First letter in the list suddenly not anymore capitalized.
Maybe insert a line break after the first list.

p. 22:
Salix-update-notifier looks a bit weird maybe better Salix-Update-Notifier

p. 27:
Misplaced "green dot" in front of a headline.

p. 30:
This seems weird: "booting opsalix os startup guidetions"

p. 44:
I don't like how isomaster gets a different layout here.

What about a white-green background for the applications list?

Sometimes the distance of images to the text varies (significantly). E.g. in the applications section.

This are various ideas regarding the layout. I can't tell whether they really improve the layout, but I think they're worth experimenting with. At least when aiming for a good layout and thus a good impression with high readability. :)
I can give the layout another more thorough look if you want.

The hyphenation etc. definitely needs a thorough look before publishing.
Also I encountered various expressions which seemed unfamiliar to me. I think we should give at least on native English speaker the possibility to proofread the text and to directly incorporate changes.
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tsuren
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Re: Salix Start up Guide 13.1.2 - 13.2

Post by tsuren »

Many thanks for checking the doc, Shador,

I will fix those points mentioned. I read the guide again today, and found a couple more mistakes there (it's a bit like writing a paper, actually. Always finding mistakes after publication. :P). I will fix them as well.

As for the indentation, etc. You are completely right. I was not paying enough attention there.

By the way, I am posting the draft version here for people to check contents, typos, unclear expressions etc. and so if you find some parts of the writing difficult to read, I am open to suggestions (whether you are native or not). So feel free to post your suggestions here or send me a PM.
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JRD
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Re: Salix Start up Guide 13.1.2 - 13.2

Post by JRD »

What about using something else for generating the doc than openoffice/libreoffice ?
The problem with this software is it's WYSIWYG. It's cool because it's fast to see how it renders, but the big problems are:
- sentences, words could be splitted in the XML level with some useless tags, making the source code more difficult to read and hack (and translate of course).
- it is more difficult to have an uniform design, even using styles.

I know only Latex for writing beautiful and unified design document. But it's not very easy to use as I remember. Maybe there are some other tools like this now. I will make some research in this area.

About PDF quality, the problem is the size. Salix Startup Guide is aim at being downloaded for being viewed, so the size is important. We must find a good compromise between the quality and the size...
With a source editor opposed to a WYSIWYG, we could imagine that the documentation could also be exported in an HTML format...
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Akuna
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Re: Salix Start up Guide 13.1.2 - 13.2

Post by Akuna »

The ideal will be to make the online guide available under these 3 usual forms:
- single html
- split html
- pdf
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Duncan_Idaho
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Re: Salix Start up Guide 13.1.2 - 13.2

Post by Duncan_Idaho »

JRD wrote:I know only Latex for writing beautiful and unified design document. But it's not very easy to use as I remember. Maybe there are some other tools like this now. I will make some research in this area.
what about lyx?
LyX is a document processor that encourages an approach to writing
based on the structure of your documents (WYSIWYM) and not simply
their appearance (WYSIWYG).

LyX combines the power and flexibility of TeX/LaTeX with the ease
of use of a graphical interface.
it's available in the repo :P
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tsuren
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Re: Salix Start up Guide 13.1.2 - 13.2

Post by tsuren »

Lyx is ok. but if I prefer Latex in general (as Lyx is essentially Latex).

For the time being, I think OOo/LibreOffice is ok. But for the future version, I will look into more options.
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tsuren
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Re: Salix Start up Guide 13.1.2 - 13.2

Post by tsuren »

As for the quality of images. Actually it is down to how good your pdf reader is. I found out the evince is really much worse than Okular (?) which is the default pdf reader in KDE.

I have also checked the doc with Adobe pdf reader on windows. All the pics in the guilde appear fine and clean.
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