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Date:      Mon, 8 Sep 2014 15:38:39 -0600 (MDT)
From:      Warren Block <wblock@wonkity.com>
To:        Bryan Drewery <bdrewery@FreeBSD.org>
Cc:        freebsd-arch@FreeBSD.org
Subject:   Re: /etc/motd summary
Message-ID:  <alpine.BSF.2.11.1409081519070.43238@wonkity.com>
In-Reply-To: <540E18ED.1070003@FreeBSD.org>
References:  <alpine.BSF.2.11.1409081223060.15689@wonkity.com> <540E18ED.1070003@FreeBSD.org>

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On Mon, 8 Sep 2014, Bryan Drewery wrote:

> On 9/8/2014 2:08 PM, Warren Block wrote:
>> Summarizing the responses and changes to /etc/motd:
>>
>>   Using ANSI has both philosphical and practical problems, and should be
>>   avoided.  In short, it has cooties.
>>
>>   Extra horizontal whitespace is the least likely to cause problems as
>>   command delimiters, and inoffensive to most responders.  Rearranging
>>   the information into a list of URLs is a net win.
>>
>>   Shorter is better.  A simpler motd that links to a single web page
>>   might be acceptable.
>>
>> My suggestions:
>>
>> Short-term:
>>
>> Here is the most popular/least objectionable version with all of the
>> suggestions implemented as best I could:
>>
>> http://www.wonkity.com/~wblock/motd/motd.whitespace-url
>
>  For other languages, replace "en" with a language code like de or fr.
>
> Should de and fr also be quoted?

That was intentional.  The "en" being the part that the user is to 
replace, there is no ambiguity with those quotes--they don't exist in 
the source.  With the de and fr, no quotes are shown so the user is not 
tempted to enter them, and the de alone shows that the final period 
after fr is not part of the language code.

> I don't mean to bikeshed on this but I find the spaced commands
> confusing. I find quoted commands more readable:
>
>  Please include the output of 'uname -a' and any relevant error messages...
>  Use 'man man' for an introduction to manual pages. 'man hier'
> describes the.
>
> or `cmd` or `cmd'

Right, but you are used to the conventions.  The idea here is to only 
show the reader what they have to type* without forcing them to 
interpret.

   % 'uname -a'
   uname -a: Command not found.
   % 'man man'
   man man: Command not found.
   % `man hier`
   Unknown user: ftp;.
   % `man hier'
   Unmatched `.

The third one is particularly intriguing.

[*: admittedly, we are not telling them that they have to press Enter. 
There is just not enough space for a quick intro on entering CLI 
commands.  But we could have one on a "FreeBSD Support Links" page.]



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