Date: Mon, 24 Mar 2003 09:12:15 -0800 From: "Kevin Oberman" <oberman@es.net> To: Christian Brueffer <chris@unixpages.org> Cc: Jarkko Santala <jake@iki.fi>, Poul-Henning Kamp <phk@phk.freebsd.dk>, current@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: MAKEDEV(8) manpage Message-ID: <20030324171215.7DBD85D07@ptavv.es.net> In-Reply-To: Your message of "Mon, 24 Mar 2003 14:34:57 %2B0100." <20030324133457.GR36490@unixpages.org>
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> Date: Mon, 24 Mar 2003 14:34:57 +0100 > From: Christian Brueffer <chris@unixpages.org> > Sender: owner-freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG > > On Mon, Mar 24, 2003 at 09:40:32AM +0200, Jarkko Santala wrote: > > On Sun, 23 Mar 2003, Poul-Henning Kamp wrote: > > > > > In message <20030323143507.GG36490@unixpages.org>, Christian Brueffer w= > rites: > > > >now that MAKEDEV has been gone for a while, the manpages (alpha and i3= > 86) > > > >can be nuked as well, right? > > > > > > Right. > > > > Although it might be considered dragging old baggage around, would it > > make sense to instead of zapping the man page completely write a new one > > that would at least give a clue on how things are done these days? > > > > Otherwise unclued people might just think there's something wrong with > > their system because the man page is missing and get even more confused. > > > > -jake > > > > Well, people are supposed to read UPDATING before updating the system. > UPDATING already has an entry about this, so has the handbook, the > release notes etc. > > I think we can't really help people that don't read the recommended > documentation. I think POLA should apply to things like this (even across major releases). MAKEDEV has been around for a long time and most folks are used to it being there. It's simply something that most people assume will be there on a Unix-like system. Yes, people should read UPDATING and, better still, the release notes. But taking the added step of having a simple man page with a pointer to the devfs paper and saying that MAKEDEV is no more there will avoid a lot of confusion. The goal of documentation should not be to make it possible for sophisticated users to use the system. It should make it as easy as possible for all levels of users, including those new to Unix and BSD to use the system. R. Kevin Oberman, Network Engineer Energy Sciences Network (ESnet) Ernest O. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) E-mail: oberman@es.net Phone: +1 510 486-8634 To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-current" in the body of the message
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