From owner-freebsd-ports@FreeBSD.ORG Thu Jul 17 20:36:03 2003 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-ports@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id CB65237B401 for ; Thu, 17 Jul 2003 20:36:03 -0700 (PDT) Received: from giraffe.giraffe-data.com (adsl-64-171-19-66.dsl.sntc01.pacbell.net [64.171.19.66]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 0B06543FA3 for ; Thu, 17 Jul 2003 20:36:01 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from bryanh@giraffe-data.com) Received: from bryanh by giraffe.giraffe-data.com with local (Exim 4.02) id 19dM2F-00023X-00; Fri, 18 Jul 2003 03:35:55 +0000 From: bryanh@giraffe-data.com (Bryan Henderson) To: cswiger@mac.com In-reply-to: <3F158EF8.90409@mac.com> (cswiger@mac.com) References: <20030716150546.GD1239@mails.so.argh.org> <3F158EF8.90409@mac.com> Message-Id: Date: Fri, 18 Jul 2003 03:35:55 +0000 cc: aba@not.so.argh.org cc: ports@FreeBSD.org Subject: Re: netpbm-Port X-BeenThere: freebsd-ports@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: Porting software to FreeBSD List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Fri, 18 Jul 2003 03:36:04 -0000 >In particular, [hpcdtoppm], mentioned in >docs/COPYRIGHT.PATENT: >... >violates the Open Source Definition, and should be brought to the attention >of the maintainer for replacement or removal. Thanks for including me on this email (I am the maintainer of Netpbm). I didn't know Sourceforge was so restrictive. I'll replace that program with a reference to some other place to download it. But first I will see if the author is interested in freeing up the program. In the 9 years since he distributed it with the "no selling" restriction, a lot has changed. >I don't regard HTML as an adequate replacement for manpages, either. >Telling someone to go to an URL doesn't help one bit if they have a >standalone system without net connectivity. Two comments: 1) You bring up two only barely related issues: a) the documentation is HTML; and b) when you type 'man' you get told to go to a URL on the Internet (I call those man pages "pointer man pages"). 2) I don't consider the pointer man pages installation adequate either, and that's certainly not the way I would install it. When I type 'man jpegtopnm', I get the documentation of Jpegtopnm typed out on my terminal, whether I'm connected to the Internet or not. But I do hear more often than I like from people who think I expect them to go browse the web to find Netpbm documentation, so I have been making minor adjustments to the documentation and installation tools in recent releases to try to make the other options for documentation more accessible to people. >if Bryan doesn't want to maintain manpages, fine: either someone >else needs to step up and do so, or else it won't be done. Right, and I'll cooperate any way I can that doesn't require me to do a substantial amount of additional clerical work, or give up distributing HTML or publishing the docs on the Web. (As it stands, the Netpbm documentation effort for me is 99% writing and 1% distribution overhead, which is how I like it). > - inconsistent interface That's something I would love to work on (or better yet, get code from someone for). Unless you mean resolving never to improve one program without making the same improvement to the other 200 programs at the same time. I suspect much of the inconsistency referred to here came about that way. -- Bryan Henderson Phone 408-621-2000 San Jose, California