On Wed, 2011-06-22, Gary Schnabl wrote about DocBook.
My view, which I have expressed on several occasions: Using DocBook
files (or anything other than ODT files) as source documents for our
user guides would be counter-productive, for two main reasons:
(1) It would exclude the vast majority of potential contributors to the
LibO documentation, who won't want to have to obtain and learn to use a
new tool; most contributors, in my experience, have enough difficulty
learning how to use Writer well.
(2) Keeping our source docs in anything other than ODTs created using
our own product is very, very bad publicity for our product.
Related reasons are: by using the product to produce documentation, our
contributors are more likely to learn how to use that product better;
and they may find bugs or identify places where the product could be
enhanced, thus assisting the developers.
I'm fine with discussing tools for producing multiple outputs (HTML, for
example) from our source ODT files. Individual members of the team who
are familiar with those tools can work from the source ODTs, but most
contributors would not need to use or understand them.
Some other forms of user docs can be produced, delivered, and maintained
on the wiki: things like tips and short how-tos. But not the user
guides. Seriously.
--Jean