Date: Thu, 19 Mar 1998 00:43:18 -0800 From: Studded <Studded@dal.net> To: Sue Blake <sue@welearn.com.au> Cc: freebsd-doc@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: what where when how who Message-ID: <3510DAA6.36D3DCC0@dal.net> References: <19980319101535.32386@welearn.com.au>
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Sue Blake wrote: > > I don't know if anyone else is as confused as I am, but it sure looks that > way. We've been cross-posting willy-nilly and dragging in people who haven't > seen what's going on, and then talking about various things all at once: > > Problems for people (not) trying to follow -stable, and the practicalities > of providing alternative information sources for them. I don't understand this sentence. > Demonstrated support implications of possible changes in 2.2.6 and how > documentation could be used to help if they happen. > Both of these might be best left on -stable? Nik specifically requested that the discussion about documentation be moved to this list. The offer was made for anyone interested in that discussion to join this list. I do plan to post the information on how to view the drafts of each of the FOO.TXT docs as they become available to -stable, however I think Nik's request was a good one. > Quick urgent documentation changes to be included in 2.2.6. > > The process of conversion to DocBook, and retraining in its use. > > Longer term improvements to Handbook and FAQ: > - restructuring (and/or rewriting) > - filling out what's obviously missing; asking what's wanted > - editing, testing, and selecting from what is written > > Have I left anything out? > > It makes it a lot easier to follow what's being addressed if only one of > these (and its implications for the others) is dealt with in a single post. > Even though (or because?) I've been watching everything, the writer's focus > is seldom clear to me. Rather than asking in general for people to be more clear you'd probably be better off to ask specific questions when they occur to you. I try to be very clear in my posts, however as a matter of perspective very little of what you say in this letter makes any sense to me at all. Maybe it's a language barrier. :) > Also, if newcomers are going to keep trickling in, maybe we need something > like a mini FAQ to explain in simple terms how all this documentation work > gets done, who does it, how, what happens to it, and what the correct > procedures are. Until now it's tended to be only those who know everything > who have contributed anything, but that's changing. The outcomes will be > good but the transition might be be rocky. So far the procedure you're asking for doesn't exist, so it would be hard to document it. :) I have been explaining to volunteers either in private or to the list what the short and long term priorities are, and as far as the FOO.TXT stuff goes I plan to continue doing that. I think the fact that there is a lot of stuff up in the air right now probably makes things more confusing than they might be, however that leaves us a lot of room for growth and expansion. As I mentioned in my response to Greg earlier today, the people making the decisions right now be us. I know that we have support for solid improvements to the overall documentation and the FOO.TXT stuff in particular. Nik's plan for the docbook conversion were already approved, however nothing will happen with it till after 2.2.6. So, I think rather than asking for a chain of command carved in stone our focus should be on getting some stuff done. :) Doug -- *** Chief Operations Officer, DALnet IRC network *** *** Proud operator, designer and maintainer of the world's largest *** Internet Relay Chat server. 5,328 clients and still growing. *** Try spider.dal.net on ports 6662-4 (Powered by FreeBSD) To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-doc" in the body of the message
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