Date: Fri, 08 Jan 1999 09:11:33 -0500 From: Graeme Tait <graeme@echidna.com> To: Greg Lehey <grog@lemis.com> Cc: questions@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Complete FreeBSD, 3rd edition (was: Printed man pages (was: Looking for the best webmaster.)) Message-ID: <36961215.CC2@echidna.com> References: <36936F9C.33BAFF88@uk.radan.com> <19990108125205.J92409@freebie.lemis.com>
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Greg Lehey wrote: > > On Wednesday, 6 January 1999 at 14:13:48 +0000, Mark Ovens wrote: > > Dave Walton wrote: > > > > What plans do you have for the next edition, Greg?. Timescales, > > changes etc? > > I'm hoping to have it out by April. I'm open to suggestions about > what should be included. Will it cover 3.x changes? You have a bunch of useful didactic stuff on things like TCP/IP (the latter could be expanded a little, to include things like ICMP), serial communication. I would like to see a bit on the FFS (what are inodes? blocks/frags? fragmentation issues? links? sync/async? soft updates? how do directories point to files? types of files? free space? etc.???). I've been referred to McKusick et al.'s paper in the docs, but it's hardly penetrable for a beginner. As a newbie, I would find the following useful: A complete list of (user ?) commands/programs available in the standard installation. You could include (with an asterisk, say) a few important commands/programs in the ports, although that is obviously a slippery slope, and the online ports info already provides a categorized list. The list should be organized both (i) alphabetically and (ii) by function/subfunction (e.g., editors / network / files, listing / files, control / files, manipulation / backup and restore / system status / ...). Each command should be followed by a capsule description (e.g., ed: basic editor / ex: simple editor / vi: advanced editor / emacs*: celestial editor). Where a command overlaps categories, it should be listed in all applicable. I realize such a listing could be placed in the realm of "general UNIX stuff" (not FreeBSD specific), and considered outside the scope of "The Complete FreeBSD". OTOH, none of my general UNIX books has this feature, and many users of your book are presumably newbies, who can use all the help they can get. I find I can do just fine from the man pages in many cases, if only I know the *name* of the command to look up (e.g., I want to view files in text or hex, or find files - half the battle is knowing that a given command *exists*). UNIX text books are often far too discursive for quick answers, and then the answers they give are often incomplete, necessitating a trip to the man pages anyway. Plus not everyone can afford a whole slew of expensive computer books. BTW, apropos returns capsule command descriptions like what I am suggesting - is there a complete list of this form in a single file somewhere? Regarding a separate man pages book, I would definitely buy a copy. I would like such a volume to be as complete as possible, but I note that if you open V2 of The Complete FreeBSD to show the man pages, it's already pretty substantial on that thin paper (which is not so durable). The command list suggested above could be included (with page numbers where applicable), preferably up front as a table of contents/index. A good lay-flat binding is essential, but spiral binding may not be possible for so many pages. Some omissions that I have noticed and would like to see rectified: cut dig ed head hier kill less ppctl restore systat tail talk uniq umount wc whois Things like awk and sed are books in themselves, but sometimes I find the man pages for such things more useful than the books! -- Graeme Tait - Echidna To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
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