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190 lines
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<title>Re: Style Guide (was Re: I'm a sucker)</title>
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[<a href="msg03980.html">Date Prev</a>][<a href="msg03982.html">Date Next</a>][<a href="msg03977.html">Thread Prev</a>][<a href="msg03986.html">Thread Next</a>][<a href="maillist.html#03981">Date Index</a>][<a href="threads.html#03981">Thread Index</a>]
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<h1>Re: Style Guide (was Re: I'm a sucker)</h1>
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<ul>
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<li><em>To</em>: Gregory Leblanc <<A HREF="mailto:GLeblanc@cu-portland.edu">GLeblanc@cu-portland.edu</A>></li>
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<li><em>Subject</em>: Re: Style Guide (was Re: I'm a sucker)</li>
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<li><em>From</em>: David Lloyd <<A HREF="mailto:lloy0076@rebel.net.au">lloy0076@rebel.net.au</A>></li>
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<li><em>Date</em>: Tue, 10 Oct 2000 14:52:28 +0930</li>
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<li><em>Cc</em>: <A HREF="mailto:ldp-discuss@lists.debian.org">ldp-discuss@lists.debian.org</A></li>
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<li><em>References</em>: <<a href="msg03977.html">025836EFF856D411A6660090272811E61D07F6@EMAIL</a>></li>
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<li><em>Resent-date</em>: Tue, 10 Oct 2000 01:08:24 -0400 (EDT)</li>
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<li><em>Resent-from</em>: <A HREF="mailto:ldp-discuss@lists.debian.org">ldp-discuss@lists.debian.org</A></li>
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<li><em>Resent-message-id</em>: <GVlx6D.A.ryE.ETq45@murphy></li>
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<li><em>Resent-sender</em>: <A HREF="mailto:ldp-discuss-request@lists.debian.org">ldp-discuss-request@lists.debian.org</A></li>
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<li><em>Sender</em>: <A HREF="mailto:lloy0076@rebel.net.au">lloy0076@rebel.net.au</A></li>
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<pre>
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Gregory!
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> Right now, the LDP doesn't have all that much respect from much of the Linux
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> community.
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I have my own thoughts on this matter but it's not entirely the subject
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of this particular discussion.
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> I'd love to see this change (which is why I'm on the list), but most
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> people can't put a finger on what it is that they don't like.
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Well, let's see:
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* submitting to the LDP is rather nebulous to say the least
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* the LDP doesn't "take ownership" of the documents hence its name is
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hardly ever heard of (although it seems to be the most reasonable source
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for many of the HOWTOs that go with distros)
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* you're just as likely to receive SPAM on the mailing list as you are
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other conversation
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> A lot of people see the LDP as just a big group of individual, without any
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> sense of direction at all. In many respects, this is correct.
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It is. What's worse there's no one person, group of "committee" that one
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can talk to. The LDP seems to be coordinated by a small group of people
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all who participate on the list. In my opinion, the fact that the LDP
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manages to pull together some reasonable documentation is despite not
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because of its organisation; to put it a little more strongly, the
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organisation just isn't there.
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Whilst the Linux community and open source community enjoy freedom,
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there is a fine line between freedom and anarchy. In Linux major vendors
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such as RedHat, SuSe, Mandrake, Debian (who really isn't a vendor but
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you know what I mean) provide some type of order within the anarchy of
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what is open source.
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I believe that we need to pull ourselves together and bring ourselves to
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a more consistent touch and feel to the LDP; someone or a group of us
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should attempt to convince the vendors not to include the "HOWTOs" but
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to include the "HOWTOs by the [author] and the LDP"...a small change but
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we're facing a marketing exercise. At some stage many of the HOWTOs have
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been submitted to the LDP and we should make sure this is known.
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> I think that
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> a style guide, helping to give a more consistent "look and feel" to our
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> documentation would go a long ways towards giving the LDP a more
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> professional image.
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There are some on this list - and possibly some within the nebulous
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power structure - who have taken the view that we should not place any
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impediments on how people should submit their HOWTOs. Whilst I'm
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inclined to agree with this statement in principal, we need to balance
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all factors.
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For example, what's wrong with convincing people they have to include a
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table of contents with their HOWTO? TOCs are devilishly easy to create -
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even Microsoft Word has no trouble with them...or they should either
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include their contact details or state they don't want to be contacted.
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Part of the man pages usefulness is their consistent look and feel; most
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man pages are generally quite usable and you can normally expect things
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to fall in place. Compare this to the tex-info documents and you'll not
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know what you'll find...sometimes something that looks like a man page,
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other times just a command option list and at other times an online
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manual/tutorial rolled into one.
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Both of these approaches have their strengths and weaknesses; we
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shouldn't steer away from a more structured "document" simply because
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that might frighten some authors away. If the author isn't willing to
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include very basic structure in the author's document then do we really
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want it? To put this into an example, if we encountered an author who
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isn't willing to include an abstract - or allow it to be added - then
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what type of person are we dealing with?
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Somehow someone or a group of people may need to work out group norms,
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some type of style - or no style at all and other matters.
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DL
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<gripe>
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If I join a mailing list and get SPAMMED by obvious spammers, not just
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people who accidentally ask MySQL questions on the PostGres list for
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example, then it makes me wonder a few things. Such as "is this list
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really professional and who *is* really listening?". "Do I want to cope
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with this SPAM?". I don't watch commercial television very much because
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of the commercials, despite some of the shows obvious entertainment
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value...
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</gripe>
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--
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And so it was that later
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As the miller told his tale
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That a face that at first was ghostly
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Turned a whiter shade of pale....
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--
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</pre>
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<ul><li><strong>References</strong>:
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<ul>
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<li><strong><a name="03977" href="msg03977.html">RE: Style Guide (was Re: I'm a sucker)</a></strong>
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<ul><li><em>From:</em> Gregory Leblanc <GLeblanc@cu-portland.edu></li></ul></li>
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</ul></li></ul>
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