Re: GNU Guix Video Documentation

[Giovanni Biscuolo <g@xelera.eu>]

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two cents from a GuixSD newbie... (I'll skip presentations, forgive me)

Ricardo Wurmus <rekado@elephly.net> writes:

[...]

> While screencasts can be useful, I don’t think they are the most useful
> tool to convey ideas.  Much of what’s special about Guix is not the
> command line user interface, but the underlying ideas.  These are better
> illustrated, I think, with the help of graphics as we have been doing
> for years when introducing Guix to new audiences.

this applies to **a lot** of other video documentation material, from
application user guides to presentations

> One concern is also translations and future updates.  Recording a
> terminal session with screencasting software makes it impossible for us
> to easily translate the video.  When command line interactions are to be
> shown I’d prefer to have a way to reproduce / regenerate the output in a
> different locale automatically, i.e. using scripts.

the same holds for GUI interaction (when a GUI video-doc is needed); I'm
not an expert in GUI "scripting" but I guess something like xdotool
script executed in a "classical" screencast application could do the job
(maybe https://github.com/rprichard/x11-canvas-screencast is
interesting, too)

> We can easily mix what amounts to a narrated slideshow with scripted
> command line sessions (cf asciicasts).  This can easily be automated, so
> that we can rebuild the video and update it with minimal effort to
> prevent it from getting stale.
>
> Setting up this automation to some degree is part of the project, in my
> opinion.  This could be done via scripts or tied together with a
> Makefile.

this would be simply great :-)

if I had money to invest I would _pay_ for such an automation system

> The big advantages I see over a recorded live session are as follows:
>
> - no need to get it all right in one take
> - prepared narration can result in much more effective communication of
>   ideas
> - easy to rebuild
> - easy to translate
> - no need for manual video editing to cut out irrelevant parts
> - separate treatment of audio and video portions; audio portions can be
>   recorded by native speakers.

great, simply *great*: thank you for sharing this useful ideas!

[...]

ciao
Giovanni

-- 
Giovanni Biscuolo

Xelera IT Infrastructures

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