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Date:      22 Aug 1999 02:43:33 -0700
From:      asami@freebsd.org (Satoshi - Ports Wraith - Asami)
To:        Nik Clayton <nik@freebsd.org>
Cc:        doc@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: Default FDP docs installation directory?
Message-ID:  <vqcemgwm9q1.fsf@silvia.hip.berkeley.edu>
In-Reply-To: Nik Clayton's message of "Thu, 19 Aug 1999 13:12:24 %2B0100"
References:  <19990818121931.A4266@kilt.nothing-going-on.org> <19990819131224.A844@kilt.nothing-going-on.org>

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 * From: Nik Clayton <nik@freebsd.org>

 * I am, to say the least, somewhat surprised at the amount of mail this issue
 * threw up, particularly the tone of some of the mail.  I've seen this 
 * happen on some of the other lists (-committers, -current, and cvs-* in
 * particular) and I don't really want it to happen on the -doc list.

I don't like it either, but you've got many people so mad it's quite
understandable. :)

 * I get the impression that some -doc subscribers have the wrong idea about 
 * what it is that I'm doing as the Doc. Proj. Manager, and what my role 
 * actually is.
 :
 * But in doing this, I'm no different from any other contributor to this list
 * (well, every contributor that's also a committer, and I'm pleased to report
 * that the number of FDP related committers is growing nicely at the moment).

So you are not the one that makes the decisions when people don't
agree?  That's good to hear. :)

I had the distinct impression that you are the manager that we need to
convince, and you are a very hard person to convince once you make up
your mind (which is usually very early).  I guess I was wrong.

 * To try and illustrate this, lets look at three different examples from the
 * relatively recent past:

There's another one.  You converted the documents from Linuxdoc to
Docbook, arguing it's better.  Honestly, I still don't see why it was
necessary.  The few documents I care about (handbook's ports chapter)
is much harder to read in HTML after the conversion with all the
numbers gone from the section headers.  The sgml files are harder to
edit too, but that might be because we've been using Linuxdoc for a
long time.

Also, the Japanese PS and PDF handbook generation is still broken
since the Linuxdoc -> Docbook switchover.  Is anyone going to fix
that?  I'm not saying you should fix it, but since you are the one
that proposed the switch and the one that implemented it, you should
at least make sure you have someone signed up to fix it (ideally
before the switchover).

 *     One thing that should be made clear -- just because it was committed as
 *     such does not mean (and should never mean) that I'm not flexible in
 *     changing it at the first opportunity as necessary.

That's good to hear.  But to avoid any further misunderstandings,
please don't commit things if it's already surrounded by controversy.

 * For the future, I'm going to try and make sure that my suggestions are
 * marked as such (and not "commandments handed down from the Doc. Proj.
 * Manager"), so that they're less likely to cause what seems to have been
 * some offense.  

Then it might help if you don't post messages with subjects like:

Resolution:  FDP reorganisation

right when the discussion started.  That's called pushing the wrong
button.

Then there's the matter of trust (as a human being).  Honestly, there
is very little trust in you, especially among the Japanese people.  I
asked you twice about who in the Japanese translation team you talked
to about the FAQ Docbook conversion.  Will you please answer my
question?

If I don't get an answer this time, I will assume you lied the first
time around and in fact didn't talk to anybody on the Japanese team.

Satoshi


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