Date: Wed, 30 Jun 1999 12:35:45 -0500 (EST) From: Alfred Perlstein <bright@rush.net> To: Jesus Monroy <jesus.monroy@usa.net> Cc: Seth <seth@freebie.dp.ny.frb.org>, Terry Lambert <tlambert@primenet.com>, advocacy@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: [Re: [Re: [Re: [Re: [Re: My FreeBSD Experience ]]]]] Message-ID: <Pine.BSF.3.96.990630115410.14320d-100000@cygnus.rush.net> In-Reply-To: <19990630164442.12266.qmail@nwcst322.netaddress.usa.net>
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On 30 Jun 1999, Jesus Monroy wrote: > Seth <seth@freebie.dp.ny.frb.org> wrote: > > > > > > On Wed, 30 Jun 1999, Jesus Monroy wrote: > > > > > Should you have problems with this statement, my opinions > > > are of record and can be found at: > > > > > > http://minnie.cs.adfa.oz.au/cgi-bin/newsread?12953 > > > > > > > To quote from your 17 March 1993 post referenced above: > > > > "I have been told more than once, by many people, from afar as > > well as in > > person, that my utterances welcome detraction and criticism." > > > > So I see people had the same objections to your posts back in 1993 > > as I do now. > > > Welcome to the club. > > > This still doesn't address my original claim. You've reported that > > 15% of > > the man pages have errors in them, and also disputed another person's > > claim that the manpages are a strength. What are you doing to resolve > > the situation? > > > I guess you want me to resort to that retarted'pr' system > for reporting bugs. Albeit the current defacto standard, > my posting was noted and correct by the documentation > team in less than 48hrs. Why so soon? Can't tell you, > ask them. > > > > I refer you to your recent post: > > > > > May notes I see, in the code and occasionaly in man(1) > > > pages are just wrong. Mind you I not going to run > > > down these daemons I just don't have the energy for > > > a fight like that. > > > Currently, errors in the documentation are constantly > creeping in because fixes (or changes) are made > to the base utility set, or the parts they > use (ie. command-line flags). This in turn does > not get commited to documentataion until the > documentation error is reported or the programmer > who may the (possible) error figures this out. > > In any case, it's a real lack of communication > between the documentation team, the core team > or freebsd-hackers in general. > > Where is the root of the problem? I don't know. > Can this be solved? I don't know. > Well this problem continue to manifest itself > at irregular times and without warning? > Yes, it's a real daemon. > > Do you feel yelling at the programers or > docuementers trying to find out where this > problem is? I certainly don't have the energy for this. Wow, i'm glad i've never been given the beating you are when I disagreed with some people on the lists... :) Problems with man pages is the most goddam easy thing to fix. just use cvsup to grab the source tree in cvs format, use this cvsup file: *default host=cvsup.FreeBSD.org *default base=/usr *default prefix=/home/ncvs *default release=cvs *default delete use-rel-suffix *default compress src-all checkout the tree from the repository: export CVSROOT=/home/ncvs cd ~ ; mkdir src ; cvs co . now go edit a few manpages, when you are done and have verified that your changes really reflect the current state of things, then: cd ~/src/src ; cvs diff -u > ~/man.diff now put ~/man.diff on the web someplace. then you log onto irc and point out the url to your patchfile to the commiters on the channel, or better yet get a "sponsor" meaning someone who will commit for you and email them the url. I used to feel as disillusioned (sp) as you do about the state of doing things for the FreeBSD project, but it's really quite simple once you get realize that when they say "show us the diffs" they mean it. There is no garantee that your patches will be accepted once you do all this, but i'd say barring any glaring errors or ommisions you have a 90% chance of getting doc changes in. Sitting on your butt harrasing the doc people will just get you scorn. You have to make up your mind as to you real goals. oh, yeah easy way to check your manpages: nroff -man putc.3 | less > --- > "I'd rather pay for my freedom than live in a bitmapped, > pop-up-happy dungeon like NT." > http://www.performancecomputing.com/features/9809of1.shtml I *LOVE* this quote. :) -Alfred Perlstein - [bright@rush.net|bright@wintelcom.net] systems administrator and programmer Win Telecom - http://www.wintelcom.net/ To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-advocacy" in the body of the message
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