I think the solution to "how not to require a lot of reading" is a series of not-too-long, organized, video tutorials, showing step-by-step what to do. I'd start with something like this:
Session 1: Why Plan 9 - what's cool, what's different Session 2: QEMU use, so that users can dip their toes in the water Session 3: Installation on real hardware Session 4: Plan 9 Administration, particular in a network: DNS, auth servers, file servers, etc. Session 5: Writing code on Plan 9... etc. I'm sure it'd be easy to do at least a dozen videos. I have long wanted to dive into Plan 9 and never had the time. Even now that I'm retired, I have too many other things higher on my list. :-( I have wanted to produce a good "getting into plan 9" book, by climbing the learning curve myself and then brain dumping it in an organized fashion into a good book. I don't see that happening, for me, anytime soon, though, unfortunately. HTH, Arnold [email protected] wrote: > > It needs to be reliable and easy and, sadly, it can't require lots of > > reading. > > reliable, of course. easy, fine. but without > requiring lots of reading, how? > > plan 9 concepts are different enough that people > have trouble getting their heads around it, > stipulated. but is there really a shortcut to > understanding? > > the whitepapers are short. coming to plan 9 as > a unix admin, a lot of what's in those papers > only really made sense to me in retrospect, > after i'd already absorbed the ideas through > direct contact with the system. > > the man pages mostly conform to the original > unix spirit of single-page documents. the > insistent habit of embedding command flag > options inline in paragraphs is cumbersome > for quick reference, but fine. > > the source is generally compact and readable. > > the fqa attempts to explain some of the stuff > that's not obvious from all of the above. > > but how do we transmit deep knowledge of > strange computing concepts that experience > teaches are rarely happily received (new users > always know better, and/or demand their favorite > tools) without inducing the candidate to read? > > sl ------------------------------------------ 9fans: 9fans Permalink: https://9fans.topicbox.com/groups/9fans/Tbe8e5fda6ae62f5c-Me128cb8aadc991286205fa8c Delivery options: https://9fans.topicbox.com/groups/9fans/subscription
