From owner-freebsd-current Mon Mar 24 10:30: 5 2003 Delivered-To: freebsd-current@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 3544137B401 for ; Mon, 24 Mar 2003 10:30:02 -0800 (PST) Received: from trillian.santala.org (ip212-226-173-33.adsl.kpnqwest.fi [212.226.173.33]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with SMTP id F30A343F85 for ; Mon, 24 Mar 2003 10:30:00 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from jake@iki.fi) Received: (qmail 535 invoked by uid 11053); 24 Mar 2003 18:29:59 -0000 Received: from localhost (sendmail-bs@127.0.0.1) by localhost with SMTP; 24 Mar 2003 18:29:59 -0000 Date: Mon, 24 Mar 2003 20:29:59 +0200 (EET) From: Jarkko Santala X-X-Sender: jake@trillian.santala.org To: Christian Brueffer Cc: Kevin Oberman , Poul-Henning Kamp , current@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: MAKEDEV(8) manpage In-Reply-To: <20030324181450.GU36490@unixpages.org> Message-ID: <20030324202245.D401@trillian.santala.org> References: <20030324133457.GR36490@unixpages.org> <20030324171215.7DBD85D07@ptavv.es.net> <20030324181450.GU36490@unixpages.org> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII X-Spam-Status: No, hits=-24.5 required=5.0 tests=AWL,EMAIL_ATTRIBUTION,IN_REP_TO,QUOTED_EMAIL_TEXT, REFERENCES,REPLY_WITH_QUOTES autolearn=ham version=2.50 X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 2.50 (1.173-2003-02-20-exp) Sender: owner-freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk List-ID: List-Archive: (Web Archive) List-Help: (List Instructions) List-Subscribe: List-Unsubscribe: X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG On Mon, 24 Mar 2003, Christian Brueffer wrote: > On Mon, Mar 24, 2003 at 09:12:15AM -0800, Kevin Oberman wrote: > > > Date: Mon, 24 Mar 2003 14:34:57 +0100 > > > From: Christian Brueffer > > > 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. > > > > > > 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. > > I'll write a small manpage this evening which says that MAKEDEV is gone now > with a short summary of what devfs does. > Does that resolve your worries? Exactly what I had in mind, so sounds good to me. ;) You probably want to make it as generic as possible, so that keeping it up-to-date doesn't become a burden in the future. I'd hate to create any extra maintenance work to anyone, no matter how small. Thanks, -jake -- Jarkko Santala http://www.iki.fi/~jake/ System Administrator 2001:670:83:f08::/64 To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-current" in the body of the message