"Adam P. Harris" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > robert havoc pennington <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > > On 25 Jun 1998, Adam P. Harris wrote: > >> This site has *everything* to do with the documentation project, > >> Robert. It just has not much to do with your particular effort in > >> that respect. > > > It's the main developer's page. It has a link to the DDP page. It > > has links to developer docs. But I don't think it's the most > > important issue here. > > No, Oliver raised it though. I was responding to that. > > > Futzing means a documentation indexing system, a new DTD, umpty > > zillion planned documents, and not much documentation writing. I > > should qualify that: not much documentation writing intended for end > > users, since I started paying attention last summer or so. > > 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.
I agree with Adam on this. Once the documentation hierarchy is in place both the end-user and the Debian developer will have easy access to a huge amount of documentation. This absolutely does not mean we should wait with writing other documentation, but a consistent overall "look and feel" definitely helps in finding what one is looking for. By the way, it's very healthy from time to time to take a step back and look whether we're heading in the right direction. The discussion about the DTD was one of such moments. I've seen quite some similar discussion on debian-devel resulting in some very "unique" features like e.g. the emacsen-common facility for emacs add-on package. > 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>. > > > 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 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 couldn't agree more. > 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 > * ... > > 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. > > 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? The User's Manual has been split into the Tutorial and a Reference Guide. This has only not been reflected on the DDP home page yet. > .....A. P. [EMAIL PROTECTED]<URL:http://www.onShore.com/> Thanks, Ardo -- Ardo van Rangelrooij home email: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED] home page: http://www.tip.nl/users/ardo.van.rangelrooij PGP fp: 3B 1F 21 72 00 5C 3A 73 7F 72 DF D9 90 78 47 F9 -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
