Comments on: Initial thoughts on Google doctype http://www.bitstampede.com/2008/05/15/initial-thoughts-on-google-doctype/ Bits on the rampage: Eric Shepherd's blog. Mon, 08 Sep 2008 09:47:14 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.1 By: Mook http://www.bitstampede.com/2008/05/15/initial-thoughts-on-google-doctype/#comment-82394 Mook Sat, 17 May 2008 06:05:06 +0000 http://www.bitstampede.com/?p=374#comment-82394 Unfortunately, it makes no sense for MDC as it is now to be a documentation repository for the web at large. MDC needs to serve a very different audience as well - extension developers and others who work on Mozilla-based code. This means it <em>must</em> document the Mozilla specific things (e.g. XBL, XPIDL), which is totally pointless and distracting for people looking for documentation on cross-browser things. If MDC is intended to document the rest of the world, it needs to have a good filtering capability, such that the user can choose which set of documentation to look at. Ideally, with different URLs (generated from the same set of sources, or something). This needs to exist for different Gecko versions as well (1.8, 1.9, .next at the minimum). MSDN does this very well, with every page noting the minimum required version - though I believe there's an opportunity to improve by reversing to browsing documentation for the intended version. P.S. Not sure if the MoFo installation is better (still can't see it!), but dekiwiki seems to be worse than MSDN in being totally unusable with scripting disabled. All the menus are DHTML with no fallback. Unfortunately, it makes no sense for MDC as it is now to be a documentation repository for the web at large. MDC needs to serve a very different audience as well - extension developers and others who work on Mozilla-based code. This means it must document the Mozilla specific things (e.g. XBL, XPIDL), which is totally pointless and distracting for people looking for documentation on cross-browser things.

If MDC is intended to document the rest of the world, it needs to have a good filtering capability, such that the user can choose which set of documentation to look at. Ideally, with different URLs (generated from the same set of sources, or something). This needs to exist for different Gecko versions as well (1.8, 1.9, .next at the minimum). MSDN does this very well, with every page noting the minimum required version - though I believe there’s an opportunity to improve by reversing to browsing documentation for the intended version.

P.S. Not sure if the MoFo installation is better (still can’t see it!), but dekiwiki seems to be worse than MSDN in being totally unusable with scripting disabled. All the menus are DHTML with no fallback.

]]> By: Da Scritch http://www.bitstampede.com/2008/05/15/initial-thoughts-on-google-doctype/#comment-82383 Da Scritch Thu, 15 May 2008 22:15:27 +0000 http://www.bitstampede.com/?p=374#comment-82383 They could have left an Open Search Description XML, as we have in the (excellent) MDC. It would have been more useful (by the way, it lacks too in PHP documentation) They could have left an Open Search Description XML, as we have in the (excellent) MDC.
It would have been more useful

(by the way, it lacks too in PHP documentation)

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