From owner-freebsd-doc@FreeBSD.ORG Wed Aug 13 23:17:09 2014 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-doc@FreeBSD.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:1900:2254:206a::19:1]) (using TLSv1 with cipher ADH-AES256-SHA (256/256 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 2C27673C for ; Wed, 13 Aug 2014 23:17:09 +0000 (UTC) Received: from spindle.one-eyed-alien.net (spindle.one-eyed-alien.net [199.48.129.229]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 08C3C2D7C for ; Wed, 13 Aug 2014 23:17:09 +0000 (UTC) Received: by spindle.one-eyed-alien.net (Postfix, from userid 3001) id C0DF05A9F24; Wed, 13 Aug 2014 23:07:50 +0000 (UTC) Date: Wed, 13 Aug 2014 23:07:50 +0000 From: Brooks Davis To: Warren Block Subject: Re: /etc/motd update Message-ID: <20140813230750.GD85079@spindle.one-eyed-alien.net> References: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: multipart/signed; micalg=pgp-sha1; protocol="application/pgp-signature"; boundary="XOIedfhf+7KOe/yw" Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.23 (2014-03-12) Cc: freebsd-doc@FreeBSD.org X-BeenThere: freebsd-doc@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.18-1 Precedence: list List-Id: Documentation project List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 13 Aug 2014 23:17:09 -0000 --XOIedfhf+7KOe/yw Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable On Wed, Aug 13, 2014 at 02:23:00PM -0600, Warren Block wrote: > The existing /etc/motd breaks many of our document rules and has some=20 > weird language constructs. The current version in HEAD: > http://svnweb.freebsd.org/base/head/etc/motd?view=3Dco >=20 > Here is a rewrite. URLs are now the only thing on a line, instead of=20 > inline and hard to locate. No contractions are used. Odd phrases are=20 > rephrased: >=20 > Here is the proposed new version and a diff: > http://www.wonkity.com/~wblock/motd/motd > http://www.wonkity.com/~wblock/motd/motd.diff > Making it clear that commands are to be typed without quotes is a little= =20 > difficult. This file is plain text, so no out-of-band highlighting is=20 > available. ANSI colors or bold could be used, but the terminal is not=20 > guaranteed to be able to display them. The only really clear way would= =20 > be to put commands on a separate line, indented. That takes up more=20 > space, maybe not a big deal. >=20 > The other issue is whether we should mention the search box on the web=20 > page, which is not very effective at finding things. >=20 > Comments and suggestions welcome. My first thought was that it's definitely better, but too long since 25 rows of text won't fit on the default console. My second thought was that a better approach might be to replace most of the contents with a URL like: http://freebsd.org/getting-started-with-freebsd-11 and a reference to a local copy of the content a release time. That would allow unlimited formatting, let us target different user audiences, and let us improve the online version over time. -- Brooks --XOIedfhf+7KOe/yw Content-Type: application/pgp-signature -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1 iEYEARECAAYFAlPr78UACgkQXY6L6fI4GtRNCwCgwzafoOQQVT02CHNZXA42e5bd R1UAoJUbpMrCz+02VB4CxAqGrSCjjuBa =JAoV -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- --XOIedfhf+7KOe/yw--