"Rob S." wrote:
[snip]
> First off, I think we should have an ultra-quick install guide. If you're
> like a lot of geeks, you know your stuff. You need to know a quick few
> steps, a quick 2-3 gotchas, and BAM that's it. I want to make sure the
> quick-and-dirty "impatient" install is available to the people who can take
> advantage of it; admins experienced with other containers, trying Tomcat for
> the first time perhaps.
+1
> PI.2.1: I love pictures! Some nice diagrams in here would go a lllong way.
> Not sure about the "choose OS" or "install Java" sections. I mean, there's
> catering to the LCD and there's catering to the LCD...
I haven't yet had a chance to look over the TOC (planning on doing it
tonight), but one of the docs I have lying around is a step-by-step on
installing java on Linux *specifically* in preparation for a Tomcat
build/install. Granted, the README file hits the important stuff, like
what needs to be in the CLASSPATH, etc. I was actually thinking of
morphing it into a more general (and quick) guide to preping your OS for
a Tomcat build/install (I have some Windoze notes lying around as well).
I could very quickly touch on Java installation, including a few
Linux-specific tips above and beyond the rather obvious actual install,
cover the environment varibles that need to be defined for a build,
reiterate the "jakarta" directory structure that needs to be in place,
etc. Basically, everything up to the point of the actual build.
Again, I haven't yet looked over the TOC, and maybe this doesn't fit
that scheme, or is not at all what is being discussed in PI.2.1. So
don't flame me too badly for not RTFM, just a quick thought I had when
reading Rob's reply.
> I think a lot of PI.2 is overkill, and some unnecessary, dependant upon the
> implied length of the sections from the TOC I suppose... I mean one or two
> sentences to "downloading JDK", sure, but more than that? Definitely more
> suited to a book than "good enough" docs ;)
Well, my thoughts on the aforementioned doc I was planning are to
provide a list of the available JDKs for each platform, what else one
needs to download for certain optional functionality (SSL, etc.), where
to get each of them, and any relevant comments on software selection.
Mainly just the huge stuff, like the infamous "Sun 1.3.1 JDK for Linux
completely broken under the new gcc threading libraries." (That one
really pissed me off.) This might fall under the category of "too much
information" as Rob is stating, but my feeling is that it is easy enough
to skip over entire sections (assuming they're laid out logically) in a
"Preping your OS for Tomcat" doc, and those users who are planning on
building out a new box (or reformatting an existing box) specifically
for a web server will appreciate such heads-up info. Getting Tomcat up
and running on a barebones OS install is pretty rare for us developers,
but it happens quite frequently in the corporate world. The bigger the
master Tomcat documentation library, from the essentials to the
sublimely tangential steps along the way, the more comfortable
corporations will feel about choosing Tomcat over a proprietary
solution. As long as someone is willing to write such things, which in
this case I am, why not just throw it in the mix for the few people who
might benefit from it? Of course, I completely agree that there also
needs to be some short-and-sweet versions of how to do install-type
things, so maybe an abbreviated version of my Preping doc would also be
in order.
Just a thought ...
- Christopher
