Re: A few other problems
On Mon, Nov 08, 1999 at 01:59:33PM -0500, Roland McGrath was heard to say:
> I am getting the impression that you have not read the Hurd Reference
> Manual (in doc/hurd.texi). It is far from complete and (might well have
> some inaccuracies, I'm not sure), but Thomas and Gordon have spent no small
> amount of effort in documenting the system from the programmer's point of
> view. I think there is certainly enough there to sink your teeth into and
> come up with specific questions rather than just expressing a complete lack
> of direction.
Hm. I believe that the first time I tried to tackle this idea I tried reading
something called the Hurd Reference Manual on the Web. Maybe you're referring
to a newer version, because what I found had a great deal of broad overview
of topics and some highly specific information about particular bits, but
no way to get from the one to the other.
> And for goodness sake, man--read the source! Are you honestly telling me
> that after reading trans/null.c (the source for the /hurd/null translator
> that implements /dev/null) you cannot figure out for yourself how to
> produce a trivial "hello world" translator as you described above?
I did look at the source. I think, though, that I looked at the wrong part of
the source and confused myself more rather than becoming less confused. I'll
look at trans/* next chance I get.
> We endeavor to make the system easy to program, and some of us are working
> on improving the documentation (I think Gord is pretty much in charge of
> that). But I don't think anyone should expect to know how to program the
> system without poking around a bit in its source code and seeing how things
> are done in practice. I don't even think that should be any kind of goal.
> I mean, that's why we make the software free and ensure that everyone can
> see the source code.
I disagree. I certainly don't think that it's ever going to be possible
to fully document a system, and I can see that the source code is the ultimate
reference. However, in the few things that I've written, I have tried to
include a file somewhere which gives enough information to get someone at
least pointed in the right direction. Your comment above suggests you did
that, though, so maybe I don't really disagree. ;-)
Anyway, it seems that I didn't find or didn't comprehend the proper manuals.
I apologize profusely to the Hurd gods and humbly return to my dwelling to
perform penance, which will involve rereading all available documentation
at least three times whilst reciting appropriate mantras on the topic of
RTFM.
Daniel
--
Moths and flame.
The glory blinds them.
-- C. J. Cherryh, _The Dreaming Tree_
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