discuss: HOWTO's recent version information
Subject:
Re: HOWTO's recent version information
From:
David Merrill ####@####.####
Date:
22 Feb 2001 22:32:23 -0000
Message-Id: <20010222173126.A6161@lupercalia.net>
On Thu, Feb 22, 2001 at 04:50:21PM -0500, Padala, Pradeep wrote:
> Hi,
> I have compiled recent version links for nearly 90 howtos, i guess.
> I am putting it on my website at
> http://pradeeppadala.homestead.com/files/Update.html. Since this mailing
> list doesn't allow big messages and attachments, I did this. May be later it
> can be moved some where else or used internally only. I'll prepare the text
> file once we complete every thing.
Whoa, buddy! Looks like you are hard at work getting all of our
documents up to the authors' latest versions. And you're being very
thorough and methodical, which is exactly what's called for.
Please hold off on contacting authors for the time being.
I propose that we create a new mailing list, ####@####.####
to help us stay in contact with authors in the future and to help them
stay current with the LDP and be more a part of the LDP community. I
don't want to wind up sending multiple mails and annoying them, and we
also don't yet know what other things we will want to say or ask.
> I am also thinking of writing a perl script to get all the recent
> version of the documents if no is written in the input file (which can be
> the prepared text or html file). But I haven't started yet. Other possible
Don't bother write a perl script just yet. I want for us to continue
our practice of having the authors submit their documents through the
traditional mailing list method. I think it's more polite, and we need
to maintain good relationships with the authors, and encourage them
to be aware of what's going on at the LDP. That's another reason I'm
asking for an author mailing list. It will help bring the authors more
into the LDP community. I think that's a good thing.
This is a problem I would rather solve through social means than
technical means. I'm a programmer myself, so I know the temptation to
solve every problem with a script. :-)
> ways to keep ourself current may be like we put a comment at the beginning
> of file which specifies version and other things and later use a script on
> this. But to make use of this we have to create a version on the exsting
> file. That has to be automated too. So there are many ways we can handle
> this by putting some comments or some tags or may be an outside file like
> the one we are preparing. Comments are welcome in this regard. I strongly
The files that are in DocBook already can do this because of the
metadata. Not all documents are in db, but they are moving that way.
Until we move farther, however, this is impractical.
> believe that updaing of documents has to be automated in one or the other
> way. As david said we cannot force the author to follow our guidelines. But
> we can pass the file thru a script which will add the recent version link,
> author's address, home page etc. to the generated file. And from there on
> recent versions can be obtained automatically at a periodic basis. We can
> also a build a nice database of authors, their addresses etc..
I have already started building a database of authors, documents, etc.
to put the data into as you send it to me.
> To Arthur:
> What is your position? I am perhaps moving near to the middle of the
> index. Tell me where you are.. We have to integrate with your listing..
Can I also ask that we please keep this conversation on the review
mailing list? We are going to start generating large volumes of mail
and this list will be very annoyed at us. Anyone who has any interest
can join the other list.
--
Dr. David C. Merrill http://www.lupercalia.net
Linux Documentation Project ####@####.####
Collection Editor & Coordinator http://www.linuxdoc.org
Finger me for my public key
Hitchcock's Staple Principle:
The stapler runs out of staples only while you are trying to
staple something.
