Launchpad Entry: Xubuntu Documentation Browser
Created: 2007-05-31
Contributors: Jim Campbell (j1mc), Freddy Martinez (FreddyMartinez), Cody A.W. Somerville (CodySomerville), and Aaron Taddei
Summary
This specification describes the Xubuntu Documentation Browser, a light-weight application designed to attractively display Xubuntu documentation.
Rationale
Ubuntu and Kubuntu each have separate applications to present their documentation while Xubuntu currently relies upon Mozilla Firefox to display documentation. Using a separate, lightweight application to present Xubuntu documentation would have a number of advantages over current alternatives.
- Firefox does not load exceptionally quickly, even on relatively powerful machines. This load time is exacerbated by the slowness of computers that are typical candidates to run Xubuntu.
- Using yelp, the gnome online help browser application, relies upon a number of gnome libraries. As a rule of thumb, Xubuntu tries to limit the number of gnome libraries that it uses to limit the overall operating system's memory footprint. Xubuntu developer team members have suggested that it would be easier to code the Xubuntu Documentation Browser than to removed the Gnome libs from yelp.
- New users often do not know that Xubuntu documentation is stored within Firefox, and thus do not look for it when first using their web browser. If a new user promptly changes their default homepage, they may never even know that Xubuntu documentation exists!
Use Cases
- Connie is new to both Linux in general, and Xubuntu in particular. She is familiar with surfing the internet in Firefox and promptly sets her home page to yahoo.com. Since Xubuntu has a separate application for documentation that is featured by a launcher in xfce4-panel by default, she is aware of where to find documentation and easily accesses it whenever she has a question about how to use her new operating system.
- Bruce is running Xubuntu on a computer with a 400mhz Pentium II processor and 192mb of RAM. He typically tries to run only a few applications at a time to limit his memory usage, and to make his machine as responsive as possible. With earlier versions of Xubuntu he had to load up Firefox to view the documentation and that could take up to 20mb of ram for just a basic page with one tab open. He likes the fact that the new version of Xubuntu uses a lightweight application to display the documentation. Since it uses less memory than firefox, it loads faster than firefox and allows his system to be more responsive. He no longer has to worry about accidentally launching help and having to wait several minutes before he can close Firefox to continue.
- Jeff is an intermediate Linux user but didn't closely examine the Xubuntu start page on his prior versions of Xubuntu and so he didn't think that prior versions of Xubuntu even had any documentation. He is pleasantly surprised to find a light and responsive documentation application in the new version of Xubuntu and uses it to learn several new Xfce tips and tricks.
Scope
This specification calls for the development and packaging of a light-weight, easy-to-use application to render the Xubuntu documentation to the user.
Furthermore, the documentation style sheet will require updating to improve the presentation of the documentation for optimal viewing within the Xubuntu documentation browser.
This specification will not revoke the ability to view the Xubuntu documentation in the current Xubuntu documentation viewer, Firefox.
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The following sections require work.
Design
- Navigation
- x-b-d should feature icons along the left-hand side for each major documentation topic. documentation topics will be grouped according to 8-9 main topic areas.
- Each major topic will feature a table of contents at the top of the page, allowing for easy navigation to specific topics of interest.
- Color scheme: x-b-d should use .css elements from the latest version of the xubuntu website.
- White space: GUI design should be clean and lightweight in appearance, in keeping with the spirit of Xfce and Xubuntu.
- Typography: should use the default ubuntu font
- Accessibility: Text size should be customizeable - not hard coded - for accessibility reasons
- Localisation: Icons text labels should be translatable. Text should be translateable.
Implementation
- The x-b-d will be developed using C with the GTK toolkit and libgtkhtml2 to display the HTML content.
- The x-d-b should be included by default as a launcher in the xfce4-panel.
- Icons used within the application should match those from the default icon set used in the release
- The x-b-d should be resizeable according to normal xfce standards
- The documentation will be stored in html.
- The x-d-b should use .css style elements from the most recent version of the xubuntu website
- While not included in the initial release, xbd should be designed in such a way as to allow for documentation SEARCH functionality to be implemented in later releases.
- A special URI system will be implemented to allow the launching of applications by clicking on anchors in the documents.
- External urls will launch the system's default web browser.
Comments
Would it be possible to render from docbook using http://docutils.sourceforge.net/ - if yes, consider benchmarking to see which is faster & lighter? -- CodySomerville 2007-06-21 05:46:51
Are you sure you want a system to allow the launching of applications by clicking anchors in the documentation? How would you implement that? Security considerations? Export considerations? -- CodySomerville 2007-06-21 05:46:51