From owner-freebsd-hackers Tue Jun 22 12:49: 9 1999 Delivered-To: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Received: from smtp05.wxs.nl (smtp05.wxs.nl [195.121.6.57]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 1906B1585C; Tue, 22 Jun 1999 12:48:54 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from asmodai@wxs.nl) Received: from daemon.ninth-circle.org ([195.121.196.201]) by smtp05.wxs.nl (Netscape Messaging Server 3.61) with ESMTP id AAA1725; Tue, 22 Jun 1999 21:48:31 +0200 Received: (from asmodai@localhost) by daemon.ninth-circle.org (8.9.3/8.9.3) id VAA16158; Tue, 22 Jun 1999 21:40:20 +0200 (CEST) (envelope-from asmodai) Date: Tue, 22 Jun 1999 21:40:20 +0200 From: Jeroen Ruigrok/Asmodai To: Mike Smith Cc: Greg Lehey , hm@hcs.de, dfr@nlsystems.com, peter@FreeBSD.org, cvs-all@FreeBSD.org, FreeBSD Hackers Subject: Re: All this and documentation too? (was: cvs commit: src/sys/isa sio.c) Message-ID: <19990622214019.B15249@daemon.ninth-circle.org> References: <19990622180252.J76907@freebie.lemis.com> <199906220842.BAA01553@dingo.cdrom.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii User-Agent: Mutt/0.96.3i In-Reply-To: <199906220842.BAA01553@dingo.cdrom.com>; from Mike Smith on Tue, Jun 22, 1999 at 01:42:05AM -0700 Sender: owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG * Mike Smith (mike@smith.net.au) [990622 17:38]: > > And they might, too. phk has frequently expressed a desire to either > > write documentation on existing systems, or at least help others do > > so. > > No offence meant, but we can see how much of this has actually > materialised. Hence I started the PDP =P Still going strong... > > > Documentation is written after the fact, by someone else. > > > > That's the worst kind of documentation. In fact, most UNIX > > documentation is written by the authors. After the fact, admittedly. > > In fact, most Unix documentation is never written, being my original > point. Which sucks given all the crap the same people tend to spew then about Microsoft being very closed about their internals. No documentation is worse than just a sparse manpage. The latter at least makes it more understanding for all without doing too much UTSL. And given the aspirations the Project has with regard to commercial support I find the silent encouragement of just hack and not document disturbing to say the very least. > As always, complaining about the _lack_ of something is the wrong > approach for this project. Step up and fill the gap, or expose > yourself to criticism for failing to do so. There has to be a way to > make a verb from Brett Glass' name, but I'm sure you get the point. And I did/am doing that with the PDP, which at it current rate of support (that is just me ;) whill be finished somewhere when FreeBSD 6.5 will be released or so, but I am not complaining about that =) I am not fingerpointing here, not am I willing to. I just want to ask all developers to try and document at least the basic ideas somewhere in a manpage in order to make it easier for others (like me) who want to get the documentation on the road. Thanks, -- Jeroen Ruigrok van der Werven asmodai(at)wxs.nl The *BSD Programmer's Documentation Project Network/Security Specialist *BSD: We are back and will not accept no... To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-hackers" in the body of the message