Discussion on the documentation.

[ghost]

Before starting work, some things need to be sorted out.

1. Does OBK have an "Officially supported" list of Distros/DEs ?

   • If so, should Distros/DEs that are "soft-forks" be specifically catered to ? or should they be referred to follow the parent Distro's documentation ? (e.g. ZorinOS that is reskinned Ubuntu with some GNOME extensions)

2. Do we document setup/usage of OBK on Xorg for distro/DEs that have already heavily shifted towards Wayland ?

   • For example, GNOME 46 and KDE6 are moving towards deprecating/removing Xorg support, and Fedora 40 is probably going to drop Xorg from both their GNOME and KDE spins. As these two DEs have practically abandoned Xorg, should we even have any Xorg-specific docs on them ?
   • NOTE : DEs that are still primarily using Xorg like Cinnamon or MATE will be unaffected, I am talking only about Wayland-leaning DEs

3. Do we document versions of Distros that, probably very few desktop users are running today ?

   • Should we document Ubuntu 20.04 LTS when 24.04 LTS will come out in 2-3 months and 22.04 LTS has been out for 2 years ?
   • Or Debian 11 when Debian 12 is already out ?

[ghost]

Forwarding information from the previous discussion OpenBangla/OpenBangla-Keyboard#368

List of distros :

   Gnome DE using ibus
   KDE using fcitx5
   Deepin using fcitx
   Mate (ibus or fcitx5?)
   Cinnamon (bus or fcitx5?)
   ZorinOS (ibus or fcitx5?)

New features :

ASCII typing
Creating new layouts using [obk-layout-editor](https://github.com/NabilSnigdho/obk-layout-editor) and installing it using the TopBar
https://github.com/OpenBangla/OpenBangla-Keyboard/discussions/345
An overview of all the features that OBK offers.

General structure of docs :

    Overview
    Build instructions (Distro-specific)
        Debian
        Fedora etc
    Install instructions (Distro-specific)
        Ibus
            Fedora
            Debian etc
        Fcitx
            Fedora
            Debian etc
    DE-specific setup instructions (Distro-agnostic)

[ghost]

On that note, Build instructions should be at the bottom of the index/list instead of the top.
Most (novice) users would want to know how to install and configure OBK for their distro/DE. not compile it from source.
Long build instructions at the very start might confuse them.

[ghost]

Created the skeleton for the docs
The colors look off due to a darkmode extension i have enabled

[ghost]

OpenBangla/OpenBangla-Keyboard#368 (reply in thread)

According to the previous discussion, docs should be in Bangla, but mdbook allows only one language to be used at a time.
I have decided to include both Bangla and English text on each paragraph, should i just create a separate mdbook for bangla and split bangla and english into two books ?

[mominul]

I have decided to include both Bangla and English text on each paragraph, should i just create a separate mdbook for bangla and split bangla and english into two books ?

Writing and maintaining both will be difficult, so let's focus on Bangla for now.

[ghost]

I have decided to include both Bangla and English text on each paragraph, should i just create a separate mdbook for bangla and split bangla and english into two books ?

Writing and maintaining both will be difficult, so let's focus on Bangla for now.

Understood.

[ghost]

OpenBangla/OpenBangla-Keyboard#368 (reply in thread)

According to the previous discussion, docs should be in Bangla, but mdbook allows only one language to be used at a time. I have decided to include both Bangla and English text on each paragraph, should i just create a separate mdbook for bangla and split bangla and english into two books ?

I have split the bangla/english docs into separate mdbook folders
filestructure remains the same, so in the future the same page could be shown in bangla/english by referring to the same filepath with the difference being obk-docs and obk-docs-bn

[ghost]

@mominul As work on misc. documentation is complete, I would like you to check the docs and provide feedback, if everything is okay, I will move to the Distro/DE instructions.

[ghost]

On that note

1. should distro setup for ibus/fcitx have screenshots ? installing ibus/fcitx obk pulls in related packages from distro repos in debian/ubuntu/fedora anyways, so the step shouldn't be that important.
2. how should screenshots for DE setup be taken, as in resolution/aspect ratio etc ? should i just take and crop screenshots as suitable ?

[mominul]

how should screenshots for DE setup be taken, as in resolution/aspect ratio etc ? should i just take and crop screenshots as suitable ?

Yeah cropping would be enough.

Sorry for the late reply, my academic pressure has piled up as a new semester has started 😞

[ghost]

how should screenshots for DE setup be taken, as in resolution/aspect ratio etc ? should i just take and crop screenshots as suitable ?

Yeah cropping would be enough.

Sorry for the late reply, my academic pressure has piled up as a new semester has started 😞

Understandable, time is a finite resource.
I would like for you (or anyone else from the project) to review the docs if/when you get the time, for any potential changes that should be made, and I am also busy myself too regarding academics, having other contributors for the documentation would be great.

[ilham-daiee-muntahi]

What kind of users should we target in the docs? Should we include every intricate step? like "স্টার্ট মেনু থেকে terminal ওপেন করে নিচের..." or like "টারমিনালে কমান্ডটি রান করুন"?

[ghost]

What kind of users should we target in the docs? Should we include every intricate step? like "স্টার্ট মেনু থেকে terminal ওপেন করে নিচের..." or like "টারমিনালে কমান্ডটি রান করুন"?

People who are tech-saavy enough to install and use linux probably understand what Terminal/Command Prompt etc are.
I think the demographic that will be using OBK are people who have good knowledge of technology in general, but not of linux.

e.g. they know how to find/install/activate software on Windows, but not what IM/IMEs are used in linux, how to configure them, how OBK relates to them, what IM is the best on which DE, how package management works outside of GUI appstores etc.

The approach I have taken so far is to avoid overexplaining obvious things (e.g. where to find the terminal to run commands) but giving very brief introductory descriptions/summaries of basic linux concepts/components.