On Wed, Mar 26, 2003 at 05:11:36PM -0800, Kendall Bennett wrote: >David Dawes <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > >> The general rule is "don't create a host.def file unless you find >> you need to". It follows from this that a good "default" file is >> an empty one, hence the empty collection of sample host.def files >> :-). If the build fails without one, it's usually a bug. > >I can see that now, but when I was starting trying to build this stuff >not long ago that was not at all clear to me. Seems to me that the >barrier to entry for new developers with XFree86 is the lack of >documentation and a simple 'getting started' guide. It helps immensely >with projects if developers can download and do a successful compile >within the first 10 minutes of unpacking the source code IMHO. Any longer >and they start to lose interest fast ;-)
I guess you must have read something to even know about the existence of a host.def file. I presume that it was misleading, and so should be fixed. I think that <http://www.xfree86.org/current/BUILD.html> is a reasonable introduction to building XFree86, but suggestions for improving that document are most welcome. The best starting point for documentation in general is is <http://www.xfree86.org/current/>, which is an index of the online documentation that we have available for the most recent release. I wish there was as much information available when I got started. :-) I can understand that you're pretty busy and have a lot to do. If the typical would-be developer is put off by not being able to build within 10 minutes of unpacking, then they're probably not going to make much progress with any real development challenges. I'll spare everyone my "when I was a lad" stories :-) David -- David Dawes Founder/committer/developer The XFree86 Project www.XFree86.org/~dawes _______________________________________________ Devel mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://XFree86.Org/mailman/listinfo/devel
