From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Eli Zaretskii Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Re: On being web-friendly and why info must die Date: Sat, 06 Dec 2014 09:33:50 +0200 Message-ID: <83wq651bc1.fsf@gnu.org> References: <20141205123549.GA29331@thyrsus.com> <87r3wem9g5.fsf@violet.siamics.net> <83bnnh3kt2.fsf@gnu.org> Reply-To: Eli Zaretskii NNTP-Posting-Host: plane.gmane.org X-Trace: ger.gmane.org 1417851244 3377 80.91.229.3 (6 Dec 2014 07:34:04 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Sat, 6 Dec 2014 07:34:04 +0000 (UTC) Cc: larsi@gnus.org, monnier@iro.umontreal.ca, emacs-devel@gnu.org To: Lennart Borgman Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Sat Dec 06 08:33:57 2014 Return-path: Envelope-to: ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([208.118.235.17]) by plane.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1Xx9sL-0001Ja-6a for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Sat, 06 Dec 2014 08:33:57 +0100 Original-Received: from localhost ([::1]:53628 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1Xx9sK-0008UV-M0 for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Sat, 06 Dec 2014 02:33:56 -0500 Original-Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([2001:4830:134:3::10]:32823) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1Xx9s3-0008UE-FC for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Sat, 06 Dec 2014 02:33:44 -0500 Original-Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1Xx9ry-0002iB-8H for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Sat, 06 Dec 2014 02:33:39 -0500 Original-Received: from mtaout22.012.net.il ([80.179.55.172]:52307) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1Xx9ry-0002hY-0h for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Sat, 06 Dec 2014 02:33:34 -0500 Original-Received: from conversion-daemon.a-mtaout22.012.net.il by a-mtaout22.012.net.il (HyperSendmail v2007.08) id <0NG500H00GU1EN00@a-mtaout22.012.net.il> for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Sat, 06 Dec 2014 09:33:32 +0200 (IST) Original-Received: from HOME-C4E4A596F7 ([87.69.4.28]) by a-mtaout22.012.net.il (HyperSendmail v2007.08) with ESMTPA id <0NG500HYNGZV0S70@a-mtaout22.012.net.il>; Sat, 06 Dec 2014 09:33:32 +0200 (IST) In-reply-to: X-012-Sender: halo1@inter.net.il X-detected-operating-system: by eggs.gnu.org: Solaris 10 X-Received-From: 80.179.55.172 X-BeenThere: emacs-devel@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.14 Precedence: list List-Id: "Emacs development discussions." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Original-Sender: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.devel:179100 Archived-At: > From: Lennart Borgman > Date: Sat, 6 Dec 2014 04:20:31 +0100 > Cc: Eli Zaretskii , Stefan Monnier , > Emacs-Devel devel > > > Yes. Texinfo isn't the best language in the world, but you can make > > drive-by contributors just write plain text, and it's OK. And > > maintainers can mark up things properly. > > Drive-by contributors could perhaps write in org-mode? That is pretty > easy to learn. (And conversion to texinfo is probably easy, or already > there.) They can write in pretty much _anything_, as long as the result is close enough to plain ASCII. Adding Texinfo markup is easy (I did that myself a few times in documents of medium size), and could even be automated if it becomes an issue. This is not a real barrier (it could be an imaginary one). The real barrier is (a) a general tendency among software developers to shy away of writing documentation, and (b) the fact that writing good documentation needs a few skills that require practice to acquire. As a kind of carrot, I can tell that good software developers that can also write high-quality documentation are very valuable out there, so if someone has a career on their mind, this is the place to polish those skills with minimum overhead and for free.