Re: SEUL: The Cathedral and the bazaar (fwd)

[Tim Coleman <trwcolem@undergrad.math.uwaterloo.ca>]

> 
> I'm assuming everyone has read
>   "The Cathedral and the Bazaar" by Eric S. Raymond
>   http://www.ccil.org/~esr/writings/cathedral.html
> (which points to the German translation
>   http://www.linux-magazin.de/ausgabe.1997.08/Basar/basar.html
> )
> 
> It's a very compelling idea.
> 
> However, there are a couple of things that don't seem to fit into this model:
>  * How do we create a *global* help system ?

One acronym: HTML.  Develop a web browser, and allow it to use a
help:// protocol or something like that. Make a browsable help index
and include some cgi (or java) to allow searching of the 
help database.  I don't know.  I hope that these are
good ideas.

Take a look at how KDE has structured its help system.

>  * How do we create a *consistent*, easy-to-use user interface ?

Why not decide on a universal interface standard, which programmers
should use to develop software for seul?  Then, make software which
follows these standards available from the seul website, and put
a seul "seal of approval" on them or something?

Since software is GPL'ed, you could have developers who work
to make sure that applications conform to these standards.

Some standard libs for developers wold be a nice idea too.
> 
> These are so very important to the SEUL distribution. But we want to
> maintain as much of the a bazaar-like atmosphere as possible.

I do't thin that it's possible to maintain a complete bazaar-like
atmosphere, and have universal standards.  Not unless you own
every shop in the bazaar.

Tim