On Mon, 24 Mar 2003, Christian Brueffer wrote:
> On Mon, Mar 24, 2003 at 09:12:15AM -0800, Kevin Oberman wrote:
> > > Date: Mon, 24 Mar 2003 14:34:57 +0100
> > > From: Christian Brueffer <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> > > Sender: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> > >
> > > On Mon, Mar 24, 2003 at 09:40:32AM +0200, Jarkko Santala wrote:
> > > > On Sun, 23 Mar 2003, Poul-Henning Kamp wrote:
> > > >
> > > > > In message <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, Christian Brueffer w=
> > > rites:
> > > > > >now that MAKEDEV has been gone for a while, the manpages (alpha and i3=
> > > 86)
> > > > > >can be nuked as well, right?
> > > > >
> > > > > Right.
> > > >
> > > > Although it might be considered dragging old baggage around, would it
> > > > make sense to instead of zapping the man page completely write a new one
> > > > that would at least give a clue on how things are done these days?
> > > >
> > > > Otherwise unclued people might just think there's something wrong with
> > > > their system because the man page is missing and get even more confused.
> > >
> > > Well, people are supposed to read UPDATING before updating the system.
> > > UPDATING already has an entry about this, so has the handbook, the
> > > release notes etc.
> > >
> > > I think we can't really help people that don't read the recommended
> > > documentation.
> >
> > I think POLA should apply to things like this (even across major
> > releases). MAKEDEV has been around for a long time and most folks are
> > used to it being there. It's simply something that most people assume
> > will be there on a Unix-like system.
> >
> > Yes, people should read UPDATING and, better still, the release
> > notes. But taking the added step of having a simple man page with a
> > pointer to the devfs paper and saying that MAKEDEV is no more there will
> > avoid a lot of confusion.
> >
> > The goal of documentation should not be to make it possible for
> > sophisticated users to use the system. It should make it as
> > easy as possible for all levels of users, including those new to Unix
> > and BSD to use the system.
>
> I'll write a small manpage this evening which says that MAKEDEV is gone now
> with a short summary of what devfs does.
> Does that resolve your worries?
Exactly what I had in mind, so sounds good to me. ;) You probably want to
make it as generic as possible, so that keeping it up-to-date doesn't
become a burden in the future. I'd hate to create any extra maintenance
work to anyone, no matter how small.
Thanks,
-jake
--
Jarkko Santala <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> http://www.iki.fi/~jake/
System Administrator 2001:670:83:f08::/64
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