[scribus] the docs license

[john Culleton]

On Wed, 11 Apr 2012 18:24:36 +0400
Alexandre Prokoudine <alexandre.prokoudine at gmail.com> wrote:

> On Wed, Apr 11, 2012 at 6:15 PM, john Culleton wrote:
> 
> > Gimp had a huge manual that you could download or buy in paper
> > form. Today's manual is online, and in html format. It is pretty
> > much kept up to date. It is not downloadable unless you want to
> > deal with converting a manual in html format. Also the content
> > is in individual chunks of html, easy to access online but tedious
> > to download in its entirety.
> 
> First of all, we don't sell the official user manual. It's done by
> someone else who asked and got a confirmation that it's legal.
> 
> There's also nothing particularly tedious about downloading a PDF
> file.
> 
> > So what model should Scribus follow? In the case of Inkscape the
> > manual author and the publisher of same is one person.
> 
> No and no.
> 
> 1. Tav's manual is a de-facto manual, not de jure. It was so easy to
> refer to the online version that it kind of became the default manual.
> But it's not a community project (which is fine with me).
> 
> 2.. Tav is not the publisher.
> 
> Alexandre Prokoudine
> http://libregraphicsworld.org


Well, when you click on "help" in Inkscape it offers you the
Tavmong Bah manual online. So de facto is close enough. From the
user's perspective it is very similar to the Gimp online manual
or even the Scribus online manual. You click on help, and then on
the online manual.

Tav caused his product to be published. But he is the author and
not the publisher. I was sloppy with my terminology.

I did not say that  downloading a pdf is tedious. I said that 
downloading a manual consisting of many individual
html pages, then converting and assembling them in printable form 
(pdf) is tedious. Dealing with a printed manual and a separate
batch of downloaded color illos is also tedious. 

AFAIK we don't have a Tavmong Bah, capable of writing a
comprehensive manual, willing to put it online for free,  
and capable of getting it published commercially. And our mutual
experience with the publication of "The Scribus Manual" was not 
good. The "publisher" apparently had never published a book
before, and has never published a paper book since. Any of a dozen
micro publishers on the self-publishing list or the
pub-forum list could have done better, including the undersigned. 
So if Scribus ever goes that route again a publisher with a track
record of some kind would be an improvement.    

-- 
John Culleton
Free list of books for self-publishers:
http://wexfordpress.net/shortlist.html
Police Procedural and Expose: "Death Wore Black"
"Create Book Covers with Scribus"
http://www.booklocker.com/books/4055.html