From owner-freebsd-questions Thu Jun 3 23:12:43 1999 Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from resnet.uoregon.edu (resnet.uoregon.edu [128.223.144.32]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 15B3D1509E for ; Thu, 3 Jun 1999 23:12:32 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from dwhite@resnet.uoregon.edu) Received: from localhost (dwhite@localhost) by resnet.uoregon.edu (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id XAA13333; Thu, 3 Jun 1999 23:12:29 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from dwhite@resnet.uoregon.edu) Date: Thu, 3 Jun 1999 23:12:28 -0700 (PDT) From: Doug White To: Kent Boortz Cc: questions@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Some FAQ's..... In-Reply-To: <19990601121826J.kent@erlang.ericsson.se> Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Sender: owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG On Tue, 1 Jun 1999, Kent Boortz wrote: > Doug White wrote: > > I'm not sure I can do much with this since you're not specific enough. > > > > I wrote this Q so I'm curious to know what exactly you're getting hung up > > on. > > What I'm "hung up on"? That I spend hours doing something that a > simple man page, the handbook or FAQ could have saved me. [doc gripes follow] This is one of the big faults with open source projects -- no one wants to get stuck writing docs. It's thankless work. Free software doesn't have the cash to pay someone to sit down and bang out 2,000+ pages of huge brick manuals, so we have to work with what we can get our hands on. Another problem is the 'fish can't see water' syndrome. Some of us work with the system on a day to day basis on a highly technical level. I build -CURRENT on a workstation and read the -current mailing list, so I stay up to date with pressing problems. However, much of this info doesn't bleed out to the general populace since we (I) just take note of problem areas seamlessly. I beileve this is the big area in FreeBSD that could be fleshed bout, but I don't have the time to pursue this. The /usr/src/UPDATING file is a great move in the direction, but doesn't help the -RELEASEs. If you do have the time & energy to donate, by all means whip something up. That's how I started. If you can mintain it for long periods, we can arrange commit privs or something to get that info into the main doc tree. Too many people complain; not enough take action on their complaints. You'd be surprised how far a PR with a patch attached goes. Before you get commit privs, http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/send-pr.cgi is your friend. Doug White Internet: dwhite@resnet.uoregon.edu | FreeBSD: The Power to Serve http://gladstone.uoregon.edu/~dwhite | www.freebsd.org To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message