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Date:      Tue, 4 Apr 2000 18:19:23 +0100
From:      Nik Clayton <nik@freebsd.org>
To:        Michael Chin-yuan Wu <mwu@ece.utexas.edu>
Cc:        dillon@backplane.com, nik@freebsd.org, briggs@ninthwonder.com, jim@freebsd.org, freebsd-doc@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: Handbook: FreeBSD Internals- Request for Review
Message-ID:  <20000404181923.A64168@catkin.nothing-going-on.org>
In-Reply-To: <Pine.SOL.3.93.1000402112529.9056A-100000@tick.ece.utexas.edu>; from mwu@ece.utexas.edu on Sun, Apr 02, 2000 at 11:26:28AM -0500
References:  <Pine.SOL.3.93.1000402112529.9056A-100000@tick.ece.utexas.edu>

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On Sun, Apr 02, 2000 at 11:26:28AM -0500, Michael Chin-yuan Wu wrote:
> I have finally finished editing and rewriting the
> FreeBSD Handbook's section on the FreeBSD VM System
> 
> The most up-to-date version will be on
> http://www.ece.utexas.edu/~mwu/_working_copy_new_chapter24.txt

Looks good.  I assume you've been doing this in DocBook, and that's
just the result of converting it to text.

> This document is very long.  What should we do about it?
> A. Split it into several chapter.
> B. Leave it as is.

  C. Create the "FreeBSD Hackers Handbook"

I favour option C. :-), possibly calling it the "FreeBSD Developer's 
Handbook" instead.  The <sect1>s in your doc then become <chapter>s in
their own right.

Trying to stuff everything in to the Handbook is, IMHO, a bad idea.  The
existing Handbook can be the "Users' Handbook", this new document can be
for developers.  The two audiences are separate.

Other topics for a developer's handbook would be "Writing KLDs", "Writing
device drivers", "Writing syscons screensavers", ...

Probably a structure akin to:

    Introduction
    Architectural Overview
    The Kernel
    The VM System
    IPv4
    IPv6/IPsec
    [...]
    Kernel Loadable [ er, what does the 'd' in 'kld' stand for? ]
    Syscons

We might be able to pull in chapters 21 ("Adding new Kernel Configuration
Options") and 22 ("Kernel Debugging") as well.  21 isn't really needed in
a user-level document, although I can see a case for keeping 22 in the
main Handbook.

FWIW, IMHO Chapter 4.4 ("Making a port yourself") can be ripped out of
the Handbook and in to its own "Porters Handbook").  It's a huge amount
of text, most of which isn't useful to a 'normal' FreeBSD user.

The "Contributing to FreeBSD" chapter can then point people at these 
documents ("Hackers Handbook", "Porters Handbook", "FDP Primer") depending
on what potential contributors want to do.

Thoughts?

N
-- 
Internet connection, $19.95 a month.  Computer, $799.95.  Modem, $149.95.
Telephone line, $24.95 a month.  Software, free.  USENET transmission,
hundreds if not thousands of dollars.  Thinking before posting, priceless.
Somethings in life you can't buy.  For everything else, there's MasterCard.
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