I’m looking for a few talented hackers/writers to help us work on the developer documentation for the Gnome platform in Toronto March 17-22. We’re already hosting a hackfest for user help, and we’d like to colocate a developer documentation hackfest there. We’ll be focusing on the Platform Overview and the new Developer Demos. Time permitting, we can also put some extra polish into our (already mostly comprehensive) API references.
Here’s the skills we’re looking for:
- Familiarity with the Gnome platform. You don’t have to be a Matthias Clasen or an Owen Taylor. In fact, knowing too much can sometimes cause you to overlook what new developers need to know. But you do have to have some experience building applications with Gnome.
- Some experience writing XML markup. The Overview and Demos are in Mallard. The API references are done with gtk-doc, often with inline DocBook. You don’t need to be an expert on any of these. If you know XML and are comfortable writing it in a text editor, the details aren’t hard to pick up.
- Patience and a willingness to learn. Effective writing is more than just dumping what you know into a text editor. We’ll have experienced technical writers on hand who will help you plan and organize your material.
If you’re interested, email me at shaunm@gnome.org.
