Excerpts from Bruno Haible's message of Tue Nov 15 21:48:30 -0500 2011: Hi Bruno,
> Two things: > > 1) From the perspective of a distributor of packages for a specific > platform, the libposix subproject of gnulib (see > > <http://www.gnu.org/software/gnulib/manual/html_node/POSIX-Substitutes-Library.html> > and gnulib/STATUS-libposix) should be of interest to you. > In the long run, this will be more economic for you than modifying > the configuration of dozens of packages. Yes, this does look very appealing. I'll see what I can do to leverage this. > 2) Your writeup has ca. 80% overlap with the gnulib documentation, > 10% is specific to OpenCSW, and 10% is generic text not yet handled > by the gnulib documentation. > > What is, in general, the value of a smaller documentation when a more > extensive documentation already exists? Answer: The fact that it is > smaller. Faster to read. So, there is a value in linking from the gnulib > manual to your writeup. Certainly. It's not meant to be exhaustive but rather to get people up and running quickly. It's a distillation of the larger documentation that captures the parts I found important and pertinent. > But if we have a GNU package's documentation that starts to link > to related doc pieces, it will be likely that some of these > linked-to docs become out-of-date. So, before our manual can link > to your doc, your text should make it prominently clear when it > was last updated. IMO the currently location of that hint (near > the bottom, between a Google ad and a Wikidot ad, with a tiny > font) is not sufficient. The right place for such a note is > between the title and the body. Ok. (Sorry about those ads. I'm always logged in and forget that most people get those.) I've added a Last Updated and Version tag to the top of the document. I'll update these as I make changes. > Other than that, the idea of section "Knowing When gnulib is > Helpful" could be helpful for the Gnulib section "2.1 Finding > modules". But that section should also mention GNULIB_POSIXCHECK, > since that is the preferred way of finding which gnulib modules > are helpful (with this method, you don't need e.g. a HP-UX > machine to find which modules are needed for HP-UX). Ok. I'll see about a patch for the docs in this area too. Your feedback is appreciated. Thanks -Ben -- Ben Walton Systems Programmer - CHASS University of Toronto C:416.407.5610 | W:416.978.4302
