Date: Fri, 12 Jul 1996 12:45:47 -0600 From: Sean Kelly <kelly@fsl.noaa.gov> To: doug@sun1paztcn.wr.usgs.gov Cc: freebsd-doc@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Let's hack on the Handbook! ..my ideas... Message-ID: <199607121845.SAA07765@gatekeeper.fsl.noaa.gov> In-Reply-To: <9607121751.AA29491@sun1paztcn.wr.usgs.gov> (message from Doug Wellington on Fri, 12 Jul 1996 10:51:38 -0700)
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>>>>> "Doug" == Doug Wellington <doug@sun1paztcn.wr.usgs.gov> writes:
Doug> Hi folks, I've been lurking around the net for a lot of
Doug> years now (Yes, I remember BEFORE the web started dragging
Doug> the whole net down!)
Yep, the good ol' days ... there was just Usenet, email, and ftp.
Gopher didn't even exist yet and archie/prospero was just in the
planning stages.
Doug> I like the idea of having one handbook for users (The
Doug> FreeBSD User's Handbook), one for programmers (The FreeBSD
Doug> Programmer's Handbook) and a separate one for system
Doug> administrators (The FreeBSD System Administrator's
Doug> Handbook).
Sounds like a reasonable division, but is there enough material to
support it? I really don't think so.
Doug> In the current Handbook, there is a lot of good programming
Doug> help, so I figure we should pull that all out and put it
Doug> into a guide for everyone that wants to hit the development
Doug> side.
Huh? Are you looking at the same handbook? I don't see *any*
programming help in the whole thing (looking at
http://www.freebsd.org/handbook/handbook.html).
Part 1 details installation and tells how to use man pages (adm,
user); part 2 is all system administration (adm). Part 2 tells how to
administrate networking (adm). Part 4 tells about a variety of things
including sup, contributors, and kernel debugging. Now, kernel
debugging might be programming help, but I usually consider it a
combined advanced development/system admin topic, so let's score this
section as (adm, user). The score: adm=4, user=2, prog=0.
When I look at the elephantine bookshelves of HP/UX docs here at the
lab, I see tons of material that fits in all three categories: Welcome
to the Visual User Environment (user), Administering ARPA Services
(adm), Introduction to Berkeley Sockets (prog), Using Floating-Point
on PA/RISC (prog), The XDB Symbolic Debugger (prog), Using vi (user),
etc. Sun manuals are similar.
Our on FreeBSD handbook would need an introduction to Berkeley
sockets, using floating point on the i386, etc., to merit a separate
book on programming. James Raynard got us a good start with his
tutorial on development (yay!). And if I had the time I'd be happy to
write a chapter on RPC programming with FreeBSD.
However, I think all that should be *low* priority. I don't know for
sure, but I think most people who get FreeBSD for development already
know what they're doing. And all the other people are using FreeBSD
to provide Internet services. More important to me would be a part
(or separate handbook) devoted to providing Internet services.
Part 5: Internet Services
Providing shell access
DNS
Configuring DNS
Providing naming services
World Wide Web
Types of web servers
Server configuration
Proxy servers
Tracking usage
Aliased IP addresses
Email Services
Internet mail routing: sendmail
Mail user services
POP and similar protocols
User mail agents
Administering USENET
Log file management
...
That would also help make FreeBSD a better ``selling'' platform.
Internet services are hot and we should capitalize on that.
Doug> I'll extract the programmer's info and build the
Doug> Programmer's Handbook, then start on the System
Doug> Administrator's and User's books.
Perhaps we use separate definitions for programmer's info ... where is
this stuff?!?
--
Sean Kelly
NOAA Forecast Systems Laboratory kelly@fsl.noaa.gov
Boulder Colorado USA http://www-sdd.fsl.noaa.gov/~kelly/
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