Re: Directory structure
On Wed, 15 Mar 2000, Bruce Sass wrote:
> On Wed, 15 Mar 2000, J.A. Bezemer wrote:
> <...>
> > Okay, a nice start. But it still doesn't explain which files (exactly!) to get
> > from where (exactly!) for what purpose (exactly!) and why (exactly!). For
> > example that rawrite2 is in dosutils/, and that you have to use
> > ..\..\dosutils\rawrite2 if you use a "standard" root.bin, but
> > ..\..\..\dosutils\rawrite2 if you use "compact". Something this small is easy
> > for us experienced users to understand, but so frustrating to newbies that
> > they go to Red Hat or SuSE instead. I don't like that either.
>
> Hmmm, when the docs are finished there should be links to all necessary
> files in the HTML install guide, in locations that make it obvious as to
> what is needed for a particular install method.
Excellent idea. I bet that in the HTML guide there will be a "virtual"
directory structure which is (almost) identical to the "real" structure I
proposed. So why not just do it "for real" and keep the docs simple?!
> Since newbies are
> directed to the install guide, they should not have a problem finding
> the files they need. The problem is when they download everything into
> one directory and the install chokes because it can't find what it
> needs... but didn't I see a message stating that dbootstrap will now
> look in the users toplevel dir if it can't find what it needs in the
> proper Debian dir (from Ben Collins, Mar.7/2000).
No one seems to have thought about this related issue: say I want to download
the needed things via FTP and install from my harddisk using "compact" (which
is (not yet enough, but...) advertised as "try this first"), then what exactly
should I do?
Try to tell me exactly, and you'll see that with the current situation it is
impossible without either a lot of work or some editing that newbies
absolutely won't understand.
(Yes, that's solvable easily. But I'd call that a workaround, not a solution.)
And yet another thing: I bet no one ever imagined the top-level README being
on a CD that is accessed from Windows. It 1) doesn't have an extension 2) has
UNIX-style EOL's so is not viewable with Notepad.
It seems to me that there is a lot of *UX expertise in -boot, but maybe a
trifle too little newbie-mindedness.
Regards,
Anne Bezemer
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