From owner-freebsd-newbies@FreeBSD.ORG Mon Mar 31 18:18:31 2003 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-newbies@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id AB4D637B401 for ; Mon, 31 Mar 2003 18:18:31 -0800 (PST) Received: from net.wau.nl (NET.WAU.NL [137.224.10.12]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id DEB6243FBF for ; Mon, 31 Mar 2003 18:18:30 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from FST777@phreaker.net) Received: from asser079.athome239.wau.nl (asser079.athome239.wau.nl [137.224.239.79]) by net.WAU.NL (PMDF V5.2-32 #38746) with ESMTP id <0HCN00J107QS1W@net.WAU.NL> for freebsd-newbies@freebsd.org; Tue, 1 Apr 2003 04:18:28 +0200 (MET DST) Date: Tue, 01 Apr 2003 04:19:15 +0107 (CEST) From: "Frans-Jan v. Steenbeek" To: freebsd-newbies@freebsd.org Message-id: <0HCN00J117QS1W@net.WAU.NL> MIME-version: 1.0 X-Mailer: Spruce 0.6.5 for X11 w/smtpio 0.7.9 Content-type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-transfer-encoding: 8bit Subject: Re: OT Humble Pie X-BeenThere: freebsd-newbies@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list Reply-To: FST777@phreaker.net List-Id: Gathering place for new users List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 01 Apr 2003 02:18:31 -0000 At first: understandable documentation should begin at the beginning (and it won't be perfect, I know). Second: the people complaining about the documentation are newbies with FreeBSD (like me) and many times newbies in the Open-Source community (like me). Writing documentation is then just a few steps too far away. Third: on many issues good documentation exists but is NOT included in the packages (I think because they are mostly not entirely complete). Making a good documentation wich is understandable AND complete is almost impossible, so maybe the goals should first be changed. IMHO the concept of "man-pages" is as good as outdated as GUI-enviroments become more popular. People are often complaining that the "Unixxes" should make themselves as user-friendly as Window$ is. That is not possible (because doing so simply creates bugs) but things can improve. Documentation is a good thing to start with. I have not the skill to do it, else I would already have created a concept. On Mon, 31 Mar 2003, CARTER Anthony wrote: > Date: Mon, 31 Mar 2003 10:14:20 +0200 > To: freebsd-newbies@freebsd.org > From: CARTER Anthony > Subject: Re: OT Humble Pie (was hardw words) > > IMHO (In My Humble Opinion), if anyone has any gripes with the language in the > documentation for freebsd, instead of complaining to FreeBSD mailing lists, > they should get involved with the documentation projects and write an > "understandable" version. I don't mind people complaining about things, > but instead of just complaining, suggesting changes would be more useful and, > I guess, very welcomed. > > So, next time you find a complicated man page or technical article, find > out the answer by asking questions on mailing lists etc., figure out what it > means, and then re-write the documentation in a way that you would find > useful for others in your situation. Then submit it for approval and > basta, everyone profits. In the end, with everyone doing just a little, the > documentation could be vastly improved for non-technical people. > > Anthony Carter