Re: mini-HOWTO

["der.hans" <ldp-discuss@LuftHans.com>]

On Mon, 24 Jan 2000, Gregory Leblanc wrote:

> Warning, this email may provoke flames.  Please, please, wait 15 minutes

Trying to avoid a flamewar as I've left my asbestos suit at the
office... :)

> after you've written your response, then read it again before replying. 
> Also, if you would be so kind as to remove the ldp-submit list from
> this, and move discussions to the ldp-discuss, where discussions of this
> sort SHOULD be going on.

Done.

> Alessandro Rubini wrote:
> > 
> > > Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="FrameBuffer.sgml"
> > 
> > I just read the howto, the real one. This covers exactly the same
> > stuff.  Since writing is much easier than reading what others have

This is a similar case to what I was trying to make for a "removable drive
HOWTO". Last I looked we had 3 or 4 docs that covered similar
material. None of them had all of the pertinent info and there was much
duplication. The Jaz Drive HOWTO did get updated recently, so at least
they're not all unmaintained as it appeared when I first read them.

> > done, we are going to face a lot of duplication.  It's very difficult
> > to refuse duplicates, as people being refused is going to take is as
> > personal, but I think the LDP can't host duplicate works or it will
> > grow to be completely unuseful.
> 
> Agreed, and we certainly don't want that.
> 
> > 
> > I think the LDP should insist on being notified *before* people start
> > writing. It should coordinate efforts, not just collect works.
> 
> That IS part of what the LDP is here to do.  If one reads the LDP
> website, and/or the HOWTO-HOWTO (I can't remember where it was) it says
> that you should attempt to contact the HOWTO coordinator before you
> begin writing anything.  I've emailed the LDP discuss list when I though
> of writing things that I thought were missing.  Documents that get sent
> to the LDP-Submit list don't ALWAYS get posted on the LDP site (do
> they?).  If they do, then the list should be moderated.

Nope. At least mine hasn't and I still haven't gotten an explanation as to
what the hold up is (sent to ldp-submit in Dec).

Also, they shouldn't be shoo-ins. We don't necessarily want to propagate a
"Migrating from Linux to *BSD HOWTO" :). Then again, maybe we do.

> > It's very similar to what technical magazines do: they get offered
> > articles before the individual article gets written. Also, the author
> > must qualify to be able to deal with the task. I'm sure some people
> > just sends articles shouting "this is great, you must publish it", but
> > I think it's the minority; also, it's perfectly right for the mag to
> > refuse publishing: "we won't invest resources in your article because
> > we don't think it fits our mag".
> > 
> > People approach the LDP in a completely different way: everyone thinks
> > to be good enough to deserve publication and this is a major problem.
> > It looks like people thinks that the LDP is a huge hodge podge where
> > everything not-so-bad can get its place and everyone who invests some
> > time in writing technical stuff must get accepted aboard.  This is

The LDP isn't the center of the Linux documentation universe. It would be
great if it could be THE major collection point for HOWTOs, guides and
whatever other docs it chooses to take on, but some things are gonna get
written with or without the grace of the LDP. That doesn't mean the LDP
has to take the subsequent work in.

There are other doc projects going, including other Open Source or *NIX
OSes, for which the LDP can be a major feeder for info.

> > *very* bad, in my opinion, and will ruin the LDP, sooner or later.
> 
> I don't agree with you here.  The LDP is the place that I go when I'm
> looking for documentation.  If I can't find it there, I search deja,
> then ask on a newsgroup or mailing list.  THEN, if I can't find
> anything, I ask (if I'm qualified) the LDP-discuss list if anybody is
> working on such a thing already.  If people are looking at this
> differently, then they haven't read the website or the HOWTO-HOWTO.  All
> I can say to that is, RTFM.

I follow a similar, but different path to enlightenment :). Man pages are
usually my first choice, though.

> > It's a big problem of image, quality must be much more important than
> > quantity, and people must be used to this. There *must* be strict

As in most things. The LDP is already putting on some emphasis towards
quality by requiring functional sgml and having a review process, though
it would be nice to know more about that review process.

ciao,

der.hans

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