Thread: Links to previous and future versions of documentation
Howdy all, I am a MySQL DBA and very much like how the web based MySQL documentation links to previous and future versions of the same page. As an example on the documentation on the INSERT command for 5.1 (http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.1/en/insert.html) there are link on the left hand side to the same document for version the 3.23/4.0/4.1, 5.0. 5.4, and 5.5. I find the lack of this feature on the Postgres web site slightly annoying and would be willing to help implement it. I was thinking that it could fit in well with the breadcrumbs at the top. Any thoughts? -- Rob Wultsch wultsch@gmail.com
2010/5/17 Rob Wultsch <wultsch@gmail.com>: > Howdy all, > I am a MySQL DBA and very much like how the web based MySQL > documentation links to previous and future versions of the same page. > As an example on the documentation on the INSERT command for 5.1 > (http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.1/en/insert.html) there are link on > the left hand side to the same document for version the 3.23/4.0/4.1, > 5.0. 5.4, and 5.5. > > I find the lack of this feature on the Postgres web site slightly > annoying and would be willing to help implement it. I was thinking > that it could fit in well with the breadcrumbs at the top. > > Any thoughts? linking between docs of each stable versions like proposed seems interesting for me. > > -- > Rob Wultsch > wultsch@gmail.com > > -- > Sent via pgsql-www mailing list (pgsql-www@postgresql.org) > To make changes to your subscription: > http://www.postgresql.org/mailpref/pgsql-www > -- Cédric Villemain
On 05/17/2010 10:21 AM, Cédric Villemain wrote: > 2010/5/17 Rob Wultsch <wultsch@gmail.com>: >> Howdy all, >> I am a MySQL DBA and very much like how the web based MySQL >> documentation links to previous and future versions of the same page. >> As an example on the documentation on the INSERT command for 5.1 >> (http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.1/en/insert.html) there are link on >> the left hand side to the same document for version the 3.23/4.0/4.1, >> 5.0. 5.4, and 5.5. >> >> I find the lack of this feature on the Postgres web site slightly >> annoying and would be willing to help implement it. I was thinking >> that it could fit in well with the breadcrumbs at the top. >> >> Any thoughts? > > linking between docs of each stable versions like proposed seems > interesting for me. what would you do for stuff that is completely rearranged or removed/added in newer/older versions? The problem is that you could only do that on a rough approximation by postprocessing the generated docs and if you really wanted to make it "complete" you might have to change the SGML source. Stefan
On 18 May 2010 14:31, Stefan Kaltenbrunner <stefan@kaltenbrunner.cc> wrote: > On 05/17/2010 10:21 AM, Cédric Villemain wrote: >> 2010/5/17 Rob Wultsch <wultsch@gmail.com>: >>> Howdy all, >>> I am a MySQL DBA and very much like how the web based MySQL >>> documentation links to previous and future versions of the same page. >>> As an example on the documentation on the INSERT command for 5.1 >>> (http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.1/en/insert.html) there are link on >>> the left hand side to the same document for version the 3.23/4.0/4.1, >>> 5.0. 5.4, and 5.5. >>> >>> I find the lack of this feature on the Postgres web site slightly >>> annoying and would be willing to help implement it. I was thinking >>> that it could fit in well with the breadcrumbs at the top. >>> >>> Any thoughts? >> >> linking between docs of each stable versions like proposed seems >> interesting for me. > > what would you do for stuff that is completely rearranged or > removed/added in newer/older versions? Yes, plus not to mention all the extra overhead that would go into maintaining the links when new releases are being produced. It seems like a lot of work just to compare versions. Plus I much prefer PostgreSQL's clean and uncluttered documentation. I rarely need to compare versions, and really, if I ever wanted to, I'd change the URL: For example: http://www.postgresql.org/docs/9.0/static/sql-createtable.html I'd change the 9.0 to 8.2 to see the same thing for that version: http://www.postgresql.org/docs/8.2/static/sql-createtable.html But as Stefan said, some things are moved around and separated into other sections. It doesn't seem worth it. Regards Thom
On Tue, May 18, 2010 at 5:16 PM, Thom Brown <thombrown@gmail.com> wrote: > On 18 May 2010 14:31, Stefan Kaltenbrunner <stefan@kaltenbrunner.cc> wrote: >> On 05/17/2010 10:21 AM, Cédric Villemain wrote: >>> 2010/5/17 Rob Wultsch <wultsch@gmail.com>: >>>> Howdy all, >>>> I am a MySQL DBA and very much like how the web based MySQL >>>> documentation links to previous and future versions of the same page. >>>> As an example on the documentation on the INSERT command for 5.1 >>>> (http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.1/en/insert.html) there are link on >>>> the left hand side to the same document for version the 3.23/4.0/4.1, >>>> 5.0. 5.4, and 5.5. >>>> >>>> I find the lack of this feature on the Postgres web site slightly >>>> annoying and would be willing to help implement it. I was thinking >>>> that it could fit in well with the breadcrumbs at the top. >>>> >>>> Any thoughts? >>> >>> linking between docs of each stable versions like proposed seems >>> interesting for me. >> >> what would you do for stuff that is completely rearranged or >> removed/added in newer/older versions? > > Yes, plus not to mention all the extra overhead that would go into > maintaining the links when new releases are being produced. It seems > like a lot of work just to compare versions. Plus I much prefer > PostgreSQL's clean and uncluttered documentation. I rarely need to > compare versions, and really, if I ever wanted to, I'd change the URL: We can easily auto-generate links *if the filename stays the same*. It often doesn't. As an example, 9.0 has 32 pages that don't exist in 8.4, and 8.4 has 9 pages that don't exist in 9.0. The same comparison earlier shows for example that 8.0 has 10 pages that aren't in 8.1, and 8.1 has 74 pages that aren't in 8.0. Some of those are the releasenote pages for point-releases, of course. The relevant there might be that of the 9 pages in 8.4 that aren't in 9.0, 6 are actually point-releases that show up since we haven't released 9.0beta2 yet. But release notes could of course be excluded. It would be easy to have the site add links if the match is exact. If it's not, I definitely don't want to get into the heuristics business. -- Magnus HaganderMe: http://www.hagander.net/Work: http://www.redpill-linpro.com/
Excerpts from Magnus Hagander's message of mar may 18 11:30:50 -0400 2010: > It would be easy to have the site add links if the match is exact. If > it's not, I definitely don't want to get into the heuristics business. +1 -- I think those would be a great help already, even if there are 3 pages that don't have cross-version links. --
On tis, 2010-05-18 at 17:30 +0200, Magnus Hagander wrote: > We can easily auto-generate links *if the filename stays the same*. That's exactly what this feature should do, IMO. At least you could easily navigate between different versions of the reference pages for SQL commands and command-line tools, for example. > It > often doesn't. As an example, 9.0 has 32 pages that don't exist in > 8.4, and 8.4 has 9 pages that don't exist in 9.0. The same comparison > earlier shows for example that 8.0 has 10 pages that aren't in 8.1, > and 8.1 has 74 pages that aren't in 8.0. Out of 1021 pages I count in 9.0, that's pretty good I'd say.
On Tue, May 18, 2010 at 9:52 PM, Peter Eisentraut <peter_e@gmx.net> wrote: > On tis, 2010-05-18 at 17:30 +0200, Magnus Hagander wrote: >> We can easily auto-generate links *if the filename stays the same*. > > That's exactly what this feature should do, IMO. At least you could > easily navigate between different versions of the reference pages for > SQL commands and command-line tools, for example. > >> It >> often doesn't. As an example, 9.0 has 32 pages that don't exist in >> 8.4, and 8.4 has 9 pages that don't exist in 9.0. The same comparison >> earlier shows for example that 8.0 has 10 pages that aren't in 8.1, >> and 8.1 has 74 pages that aren't in 8.0. > > Out of 1021 pages I count in 9.0, that's pretty good I'd say. > I think that being able to navigate between version without manually altering the URL has significant value. I do not have an answer as to what to do about articles that change locations, but it seems like this is a very small subset of the manual. I assume if there is enough demand we could do some mapping later. I am willing to hack on this in my spare time. Where can I get a checkout of the www code or is there a tutorial for dealing with the website? -- Rob Wultsch wultsch@gmail.com
Rob Wultsch wrote: > > Out of 1021 pages I count in 9.0, that's pretty good I'd say. > > > > I think that being able to navigate between version without manually > altering the URL has significant value. I do not have an answer as to > what to do about articles that change locations, but it seems like > this is a very small subset of the manual. I assume if there is enough > demand we could do some mapping later. > > I am willing to hack on this in my spare time. Where can I get a > checkout of the www code or is there a tutorial for dealing with the > website? Sure: http://wiki.postgresql.org/wiki/Developer_FAQ#How_do_I_get_involved_in_PostgreSQL_web_site_development.3F -- Bruce Momjian <bruce@momjian.us> http://momjian.us EnterpriseDB http://enterprisedb.com