Thu, 19 Jul 2018 03:57:17 -0700 Ahmed Khanzada <m...@enzu.ru> > Hello, > > I am a programmer with a strong passion for both documentation and offline > computing. Inspired by 9front, I was wondering if there was any interest > in porting the currently online-only FAQ to an offline FAQ format that could > perhaps ship with OpenBSD by default, enabling a user to have a completely > self-documented operating system without the need for an Internet connection.
Hi Ahmed, You can be sure you are not the only one. Yes indeed, there is interest in having the system include all necessary documentation to use offline, immediately after the installation every important information included. The key here is: important to have while all offline reducing ambiguity. The manuals are also available online, via the man.openbsd.org web site. > Preferably, this offline FAQ would not be in HTML or anything browser-centric, > but rather in something like a man format friendly for terminal perusing. There is absolutely a necessity for getting started manual page for each section, typically called intro. I imagine the bits that can not be put in the respective manual page could be placed in an extra(section) page. Use the name you think appropriate: book, guide, index, faq, extra, etc. Then updating to the latest snapshot just gives you the updated manuals. > I would be more than happy to lend my time and efforts to such a project, if > the community deems it appropriate. You know.. there is absolutely NOTHING preventing you from making these, at least in your local copy of the operating system and then ask review. You could start by reducing to a minimum the "changing" and "extraneous" nature of these documents moving the bits to their manual pages and then just again carefully reconsider why still need to have an extra manpage. Of course, you do otherwise there would be no FAQ, right? Deep thought. In my personal opinion, it is important to have a "reference book", YES. > -- Ahmed Khanzada > Thank you for raising this question I think it is important and welcome, from both novice and experiences user perspective this would be awesome. You should also know, if you provide something you must also DO maintain it over long time, longer than you suppose, otherwise it's worse service to give something and run away not keeping it relevant than not have it. Kind regards, Anton Lazarov
