Leaving aside the issue of file format for just one second... Are we agreed on the following? 1. Tomcat documentation sucks :-) 2. There needs to be a new CVS project called jakarta-tomcat-doc. My reasoning is that we want to avoid the fragmentation of documentation into different trees for 3.2, 3.3, and 4.0. Why? Because a lot of documentation would apply equally to all versions. Looking at it in reverse, the fact that someone is using an old version of Tomcat shouldn't mean they're forced to use an old version of the documentation. Instead, a chapter on, say, web application deployment may need to have a sidebar describing changes between 3.x and 4.x, but assuming 4.x isn't *radically* different, they can both use the same core text. (In cases where 4.x *is* radically different, it would just have a separate document/chapter, with the 4.x specificity clearly labelled in the title.) I know the 4.x crew have begun the process of creating a separate documentation set, including xdocs, and this is great. If it's too much work to integrate 3.x and 4.x then maybe they should remain separate CVS projects too, but it may still be desirable to have a separate CVS project anyway. 3. There needs to be a better index/TOC for the documentation we do have, and a reorganization of the redundant / outdated / wrong parts of the existing docs (the Apache config stuff comes to mind). 4. Someone or some small group of people should take responsibility for making this happen (before we "run out of steam"), regularly submitting proposals and keeping the rest of the group apprised of developments and decisions, but retaining some authority. Let's call this person/people the Documentation Czar. I'm not proposing he/they have any real authority over the content, but just over organizing it, deciding where to place it, and forming "to do" lists for documents/chapters that need to be written or proofed or tech edited or revised. If we agree on the above, then there's a good chance I'd volunteer to be the Doc Czar, even though I think it's a lot of work. I've been managing the jGuru Tomcat FAQ for a year, and the Servlets FAQ for longer, so I at least have some idea of the scope of this kind of organizational task. (Note that I'm not suggesting I actually *write* all this new documentation... :-) Maybe a better term would be "Doc Editor" or "Editorial Board". And maybe I'm being too anal in proposing it; maybe the open source process will ensure the job gets done by interested developers even without the title. - Alex
Alex Chaffee mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] jGuru - Java News and FAQs http://www.jguru.com/alex/ Creator of Gamelan http://www.gamelan.com/ Founder of Purple Technology http://www.purpletech.com/ Curator of Stinky Art Collective http://www.stinky.com/
