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Date:      Mon, 24 Mar 2003 19:14:50 +0100
From:      Christian Brueffer <chris@unixpages.org>
To:        Kevin Oberman <oberman@es.net>
Cc:        Jarkko Santala <jake@iki.fi>, Poul-Henning Kamp <phk@phk.freebsd.dk>, current@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   Re: MAKEDEV(8) manpage
Message-ID:  <20030324181450.GU36490@unixpages.org>
In-Reply-To: <20030324171215.7DBD85D07@ptavv.es.net>
References:  <20030324133457.GR36490@unixpages.org> <20030324171215.7DBD85D07@ptavv.es.net>

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On Mon, Mar 24, 2003 at 09:12:15AM -0800, Kevin Oberman wrote:
> > Date: Mon, 24 Mar 2003 14:34:57 +0100
> > From: Christian Brueffer <chris@unixpages.org>
> > Sender: owner-freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG
> >=20
> > On Mon, Mar 24, 2003 at 09:40:32AM +0200, Jarkko Santala wrote:
> > > On Sun, 23 Mar 2003, Poul-Henning Kamp wrote:
> > >
> > > > In message <20030323143507.GG36490@unixpages.org>, Christian Brueff=
er w=3D
> > rites:
> > > > >now that MAKEDEV has been gone for a while, the manpages (alpha an=
d i3=3D
> > 86)
> > > > >can be nuked as well, right?
> > > >
> > > > Right.
> > >
> > > Although it might be considered dragging old baggage around, would it
> > > make sense to instead of zapping the man page completely write a new =
one
> > > that would at least give a clue on how things are done these days?
> > >
> > > Otherwise unclued people might just think there's something wrong with
> > > their system because the man page is missing and get even more confus=
ed.
> > >
> > > 	-jake
> > >
> >=20
> > Well, people are supposed to read UPDATING before updating the system.
> > UPDATING already has an entry about this, so has the handbook, the
> > release notes etc.
> >=20
> > I think we can't really help people that don't read the recommended
> > documentation.
>=20
> I think POLA should apply to things like this (even across major
> releases). MAKEDEV has been around for a long time and most folks are
> used to it being there. It's simply something that most people assume
> will be there on a Unix-like system.
>=20
> Yes, people should read UPDATING and, better still, the release
> notes. But taking the added step of having a simple man page with a
> pointer to the devfs paper and saying that MAKEDEV is no more there will
> avoid a lot of confusion.=20
>=20
> The goal of documentation should not be to make it possible for
> sophisticated users to use the system. It should make it as
> easy as possible for all levels of users, including those new to Unix
> and BSD to use the system.
>=20
> R. Kevin Oberman, Network Engineer
> Energy Sciences Network (ESnet)
> Ernest O. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab)
> E-mail: oberman@es.net			Phone: +1 510 486-8634
>=20
> To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org
> with "unsubscribe freebsd-current" in the body of the message
>=20
>=20

I'll write a small manpage this evening which says that MAKEDEV is gone now
with a short summary of what devfs does.
Does that resolve your worries?

- Christian

--=20
Christian Brueffer	chris@unixpages.org	brueffer@FreeBSD.org
GPG Key:	 http://people.freebsd.org/~brueffer/brueffer.key.asc
GPG Fingerprint: A5C8 2099 19FF AACA F41B  B29B 6C76 178C A0ED 982D

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