Date: Tue, 31 Oct 2000 16:11:01 -0900 From: Brian Raynes <brian_raynes@dnr.state.ak.us> To: freebsd-newbies@freebsd.org Subject: Re: A sample category Message-ID: <39FF6DA5.6A9F28BF@dnr.state.ak.us> References: <39FF634E.48ADADF3@acuson.com>
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David Johnson wrote: > > Here is a sample category that I came up with for a newbies' ports > guide. I looked over Annalisa's chapter, and I these are two related but > different ideas. I still don't know about following the ports categories > as is. Some categories might have a dozen good packages to mention, > while others might not have any. > > Anyway, here it is, and it's just a rough sample with semi-randomly > chosen apps. Is this too much, too little, just right... > > David I liked the description part, but the comments of the sort "This rocks!" are not especially helpful to me. I suppose if this was a website it could handle these as user reviews ala the online bookstores. That way I could read through them if I liked, looking for those that were helpful. Otherwise, it would be better to show a list of pros/cons and capabilities. I also like the idea of linking to homepages or how-to documents - then I can see for myself if the install/configuration is within my comfort range of ability. My experience with many ports that are free software seems to be that much space in readmes and included docs is devoted to the significant features/fixes that have been added since the last release. This is great for current users who want to know if upgrading is worth their time, but sometimes not as helpful for someone trying to figure out what exactly the software is capable of or if it fits their specific needs. For example: A number of times I have spent several hours digging into different programs that seem to fill a need and then find out that it chokes when trying to do what I wanted it for. My most recent experience with this was finding out that the Python Imaging Library couldn't handle group 4 tiff images (at least not yet). Another package I was interested in is dependent on the PIL and after some 3-4 hours of installing/testing/hoping I find out it can't fit my situation. BTW, I still am pretty impressed with both packages (PIL and Reportlab, a really nice PDF generator lib for python), but they can't help me and that was pretty frustrating after so much work. To their credit, Reportlab says up front that their image capabilities are dependent on PIL which _did_ save a lot of time figuring that out. Yes, I did learn a bit about TIFF format (aka Thousands of Incompatible File Formats), but it would have been nice to know more up front that PIL had this weakness. I had to find out in a mailing list archive - it wasn't mentioned in the docs. This sort of information might turn up in a user reviews type of section and prompt an updating of the documentation. Sorry for the wordy post, and for those interested - In no way are there any questions being asked, it's just me relating my experience. There I feel better now... Brian Raynes To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-newbies" in the body of the message
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