On Thu, 25 Jun 1998, Adam P. Harris wrote: > > Maybe I'm short-sighted or "futzing" by personally prioritizing a > consistent document heirarchy (basically done) and a metadata standard > (close to done), although I personally think it's important. > > Not to mention that Igor and I have quietly and without much ado been > editing and working on the Installing Debian 2.0/x86 documentation. I > lost a good deal of sleep earlier this week working on it, making it > more consistent and readable, adding laptop installation instructions. > Anyone hoping to contribute there should contact <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> or > just send patches off <URL:http://www.igoria.net/install/install.sgml>. >
Slow down, I'm not trying to disparage your efforts, and the install document is certainly the major piece of documentation that has been written and it's quite good. I just have a feeling that every time writing comes up, it gets sidetracked into a technical or organizational issue. I probably read too much into it when you said my post on the current status of the tutorial, how to contribute, etc. was not the main thing, when I felt the email I was responding to was primarily about that. I should be more careful about posting my frustrations to the list. Apologies. Please, let's not have a flame war. > > Anyway, let's not get into a silly argument. Clearly both a doc > > coordinator and doc writing are needed. But please, no one wait for > > those web pages to get updated before writing docs. > > No, but people are more likely to contribute if they see a larger > vision. And if they see that their work is getting incorporated into > the document. I hope you've been able to track down the contributions > of others and patch those in, as Oliver and others mentioned. > I've incorporated all contributions that I've received, I think, though it's been a while and I may have screwed something up. > I guess the lesson, here, Robert, is that you're not going to win > points with or other developers by disparaging their efforts. We're > all volunteers here. > I'm not trying to disparage anything. Please give me the benefit of the doubt. I just don't want to see yet another giant planning session with no documents resulting. There have been a number of these on the list since I joined it. > By the bye, you haven't seen me contributing to the tutorial because I > think it's much too ambitious. I would rather see a guideline for > experienced FSF/Linux users getting to know Debian, and how it might > differ from what they expect. I guess I see a general Unix intro, > including permissions, the shell, X11, TeX (!), lpr, etc etc., as just > too large of a project. I'd rather see a guide (or is there one > already?) explaining the Debian way: > * don't install stuff in /usr > * how and when to use dpkg, apt, dselect, dftp > * checking bugs on the BTS > * ... > This would also be a useful guide, yes. The tutorial is not really that ambitious though IMO. Unix isn't all that hard or complex, from a user standpoint. Also, the outline is a sort of ideal situation; writing only half of it would be very useful still. With the help of Larry Greenfield's LDP manual, we already have a solid start. > I wish you the best of luck, however. Please don't get frustrated or > angry that different people have different priorities and goals. You > have to have a thick skin and a bit of pigheadedness to be a debian > developer. > I know. I've been on the lists for a long time. But everyone has bad days. Please bear with me. > Oh, one last thing. How does the Tutorial relate to the Debian User Manual > (http://fatman.mathematik.tu-muenchen.de/~schwarz/debian-doc/manuals.html#users)? > It seems that there's a *lot* of overlap? > If I remember the discussion correctly, the User Manual has been split into several parts: - The Install Guide covers installation and configuration of packages; sort of install.txt + setting up ppp, mail, etc. There is some overlap with lots of HOWTOs, so this may just be pointers to them and Debian-specific information. - The Tutorial is a GNU/Linux intro for newbies; its main virtue over existing books is freeness and Debian-specificity, so all the examples work without modification. - The Reference Manual is less newbie, less tutorial-formatted; perhaps this is the document you describe above. - A system adminstration guide? I don't remember. This could maybe be the same as the reference manual. So the User Manual per se no longer even exists. That web page is very far out of date. Havoc -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
