Re: may I ask for proper docs?
Thomas Adams wrote:
> It's a great distribution, I like it a lot, I'm installing it at school
> whereever I can and even think about packaging something myself. You sure do a
> hell of a good job.
>
> But there is something which annoys me every now and then: Some maintainers do
> not put proper documentation into the debs which makes it hard if not
> impossible to install/configure software if you aren't an expert.
Please file proper bug reports and nag the maintainers, if you have
understood the provided documentation or package please write down
some more documentation and append it to the bug report so the
maintainer can use it.
> + ISDN4LINUX: Includes a lot of documentation but the Debian style of
> configuring it differs so much it's almost useless. After a lot of tinkering
> I could connect to my ISP but if I'm honest, I neither know why nor could I
> help somebody else to get online with I4L. I hope this will change some time
> in the near future.
Since I always have my problems with this package, you're probably right...
> + CNEWS: The maintainer doesn't like people without X or a printer it seems.
> Absolutely no plain ASCII docs are available :-(. I filed a bug report but
> never got a reply.
Is it easy to convert the documentation to a plain text file? If so
did you mention this easy fix?
> + UUCP: The information is there but it differs from the actual build in at
> least one point: Put a "commands ALL" into your sys file and wait for an
> rgsmtp or however you call the command for compressed mailbatches. It won't
> be executed unless you explicitly put the command's name into the sys file.
> Either the documentation or the software itself should be changed. I filed a
> bug report but never got a reply.
I guess you unfortunately reached some busy maintainers...
> Please, look at the docs you're providing and if they can't be viewed by
> everybody, differ from the software because you changed something or aren't of
> much use to people who didn't grow up with Debian, then change them. It would
> make it so much easier to install the system.
I know you're right. Documentation is one thing free software often
lacks. It takes hell of a time to write documentation. As a "hacker"
it's *much* more fun to implement cool stuff. So for documentation
more people are needed - like you. I hope you can provide some texts
and contribute this way.
Regards,
Joey
--
Let's call it an accidental feature. --Larry Wall
Please always Cc to me when replying to me on the lists.
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