On May 4, 2012, at 3:23 PM, Bruce Dubbs wrote:
>> But, why strew information all across the book?
>> Chapter 5 is the backbone to the entire thing. But it starts with a somewhat
>> irrelevant section (5.1), and an advanced section (5.2). Then, you want
>> people to know that the "Important" part of (5.3) is *actually* important?
>>
>> Here's something "Important" from 5.2:
>
> [deleted quote]
>
> I can agree that the section of 5.2 could be changed to a note.
>
> There are 3 "important" sections in chapter 5, and 6 in chapter 6.
>
>> I'd argue that it's not important at all. Maybe to someone who's taking LFS
>> and working on a derivative work. Or to someone who's messing about with the
>> toolchain.
>>
>> But, put simply: it's pretty hard to separate the complete irrelevance of
>> 5.2-"Important" from the absolute necessity of 5.3-"Important". This is an
>> issue of poorly structured book organization--not the information intended to
>> be conveyed in the book.
>
> Is the extent of the changes you think are needed to just relabel one section?
If LFS is just a source code project, then to some extent you can say that
prose style or organization is irrelevant. It's not, because it's often
repeated that it's a book, as well. So, style is important, because
organization can aid understanding.
Which is to say, I think you missed my point about Sections (i) through (v). I
didn't say (vi) or (vii), which I agree are more important, if not misplaced.
But, (i) through (v) are pretty much irrelevant to a user. Why not just start
at (vi)? Sure, the original creator should get a foreword, but then jump to
the stuff that matters. Then, go straight into the build bits. All the
motivation stuff--which, while fine for the start, should not be in the same
(section|chapter) whatever as the irrelevant information. That should be
canned into an appendix, or the *actually* important bits (e.g. vi and vii)
moved into a different part of the book.
As for the rest of what I said, sure...you could boil it down to:
* Get rid of 5.1 and 5.2, or maybe move them into 4.x as a footnote.
* The start of 5 should be: "You'd better start paying attention, right
the frak now."
* Followed immediately by "Important FOR USERS: Here's how to unpack
stuff...blah blah blah"
So, yes, you could take what I've said and do some minor edits, but that feels
like CSS decorating a web page. Alternatively, you could consider making
changes to the organization of the book as it impacts readability.
Traditionally, editors do that. In this case, you and Matt are more the
technical reviewers. I assume that neither of you are writers...If so, then I
apologize, but I still stand by my analysis. I'm saying the organization of
the prose bits needs work. Which is different from "Well, dude--spit it out.
You want the red to be redder and the 'Important' to be a larger point-size?"
which seems to be more of what you're after.
Q
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