discuss: Tech Writting Assignment
Subject:
Re: [discuss] Tech Writting Assignment
From:
David Lawyer ####@####.####
Date:
28 Feb 2006 09:51:12 -0000
Message-Id: <20060228094905.GA10493@lafn.org>
On Mon, Feb 27, 2006 at 09:12:05PM -0500, Brandon Wigfield wrote:
> Hello everyone,
>
> I'm new to the TLDP list, but I have certainly benefited from the docs in
> the past. I am a CS major at Frostburg State University and am currently
> taking a class in technical writing. We have to do a project for the class
> and it seems like my professor is okay with my witting a HOWTO or a Guide
> for the TLDP as my project. So I was wondering if anyone had any ideas in
> mind for something they would like to see written, or if anyone is aware of
> a subject that TLDP documentation is currently lacking in, please let me
> know.
While LDP lacks docs on some topics, even more important than writing
on a new topic could be the updating of existing docs that people have
neglected to update. One suggestion is to take on the task of merging
the following 4 HOWTOs into say 2 HOWTOs:
ISP-Connectivity.g
ISP-Hookup-HOWTO.gz
ISP-Setup-RedHat-HOWTO.gz
PPP-HOWTO.gz
All of these are outdated. You would need to create an ISP-DialUp
Howto (you pick the name) to replace the 3 ISP ones above. The
program wvdial isn't mentioned in any of these 3. Then you need to
decide the scope of the ISP and PPP howtos. Perhaps the ISP one might
avoid showing how to write dialup scripts since they aren't needed
anymore (due to wvdial) for connecting to an ISP. But writing such
scripts would be in PPP-HOWTO. Of course it's up to you to decide how
to organize all this. The 2 resulting HOWTOs would reference each
other as well as other HOWTOs.
The PPP one is basically by Robert Hart in 1997. The revision by
Joshua Drake and Co. in 2000 didn't change a whole lot and is mostly
just some editing work on it. So most of the credit should go to
Robert Hart.
PPP can be used for Virtual Private Networks (VPN) but that use may
belong in a VPN HOWTO.
Perhaps the above suggestion would be too much work, so you could just
merge the ISP Howtos but it would be nice to see PPP fixed. A PPP
server will probably be part of a RAS (Remote Access Server). Which
leads to another thought if you want to write something from scratch.
I don't think any Howtos cover RAS. I explain briefly what RAS does
in my Serial-HOWTO, but I think a HOWTO is needed for RAS. Or it
could be a broader Guide on How to be an ISP using Linux.
For a simple alternative to DocBook markup see my mini howto:
Howtos-with-LinuxDoc. The LinuxDoc format is much easier to learn and
use but doesn't have as may options as DocBook. The url is
http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/Linux/docs/HOWTO/other-formats/html_single/Howtos-with-LinuxDoc.html
See also a comparison of the two markups at
www.lafn.org/~dave/linux/ld_vs_db.txt
David Lawyer
