From owner-freebsd-doc Wed Nov 29 10:34:34 2000 Delivered-To: freebsd-doc@freebsd.org Received: from nothing-going-on.demon.co.uk (unknown [194.128.198.234]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id C70F237B401 for ; Wed, 29 Nov 2000 10:34:31 -0800 (PST) Received: (from nik@localhost) by nothing-going-on.demon.co.uk (8.11.0/8.11.0) id eATIX2S38480; Wed, 29 Nov 2000 18:33:02 GMT (envelope-from nik) Date: Wed, 29 Nov 2000 18:33:00 +0000 From: Nik Clayton To: Rich Morin Cc: freebsd-doc@freebsd.org Subject: Re: draft article, for review Message-ID: <20001129183258.A38444@canyon.nothing-going-on.org> References: <20001129144252.A23325@canyon.nothing-going-on.org> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline User-Agent: Mutt/1.2.5i In-Reply-To: ; from rdm@cfcl.com on Wed, Nov 29, 2000 at 10:14:10AM -0800 Organization: FreeBSD Project Sender: owner-freebsd-doc@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.org On Wed, Nov 29, 2000 at 10:14:10AM -0800, Rich Morin wrote: > Back to the original thread of the discussion, I still haven't heard > anything that I can use to modify my article. Please, folks, tell me > if I need to change anything at final edit! At the very least, something about the fact that the marvellous thing about FreeBSD is that end users have the power to submit changes, see them acted on, and, if they do it often enough, get handed the power to make these sorts of changes directly. make.conf(5) is a very good example of this (ideally, including the URL to the PR, which was in my previous message, would be good). Also, note that I committed explanatory text to make(1) earlier today which explicitly points to the location of the Pmake tutorial on the system. So you can make a difference. It just (generally) happens faster if you send PRs with patches. [ Note, I say "generally" because I am well aware that there are a number of PRs assigned to -doc which have patches in them, and the question is then "Well, why haven't these been committed quickly then?". The answer is because a committer still needs to review the patch, and make sure it's appropriate. In some cases (if it's a typo, or something like that) this process is very quick. In other cases (for example, if the documentation is incorrect about a feature in a program, but it's unclear whether it's the documentation that should change or the program) this process can take longer. Also, anyone that follows the PR list knows that it's not unknown for myself, and others, to take the time once a month or so to sit down and work through the PR list, patching and applying as many as possible in one go. Sometimes that's the only way to work through it. Interested non-committers, who are looking for something to do, would greatly benefit the project by going through the PR database looking for PRs which have no patches, and writing patches, and submitting them to the same PR -- alternatively, if a PR has a patch attached to it, take a look at it. If it applies cleanly, and you think it makes sense (or if it doesn't apply cleanly, or there's something wrong with it) say so in the PR (details are on the web site). This makes the committer's lives much easier, and is a good way to get noticed so that someone @freebsd.org asks you to join the ranks of the insane^H^H^H^H^H^Hcommitters. ] N -- Internet connection, $19.95 a month. Computer, $799.95. Modem, $149.95. Telephone line, $24.95 a month. Software, free. USENET transmission, hundreds if not thousands of dollars. Thinking before posting, priceless. Somethings in life you can't buy. For everything else, there's MasterCard. -- Graham Reed, in the Scary Devil Monastery To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-doc" in the body of the message