discuss: Thread: proposal - merge of mini-HOWTOs

We're strongly considering merging the mini-HOWTOs into
the set of "full" HOWTOs. In general, we feel it will make
it easier to navigate and find what you're looking for.
The structural boundaries (directory structure, sep.
tar files, etc) will be removed. Authors can still use the
term "mini HOWTO" in the title of a document to denote 
those documents that are short and usually very specific 
in nature, but nothing will separate them from the "full"
HOWTOs. An outline of some of the changes:

* 1 master (combined) list in the HOWTO-INDEX vs. the current 2:
  full HOWTOs - http://tldp.org/HOWTO/
  mini HOWTOS - http://tldp.org/HOWTO/mini/

* One set of tar files per document variant vs. the current 2:
  http://tldp.org/docs.html#howto

* Combined directory structure (on ibiblio and tldp.org)

Does anyone feel we should *not* do this? Let me/us know.
Do you think this warrants re-direct files for those under
tldp.org:/HOWTO/mini/ which will now reside in tldp.org:/HOWTO/?

thanks,
--
Greg Ferguson    * SGI principal engr / LDP contributor
SGI Tech Pubs    * http://techpubs.sgi.com/ | gferg(at)sgi.com
Linux Doc Project* http://tldp.org/         | gferg(at)metalab.unc.edu

Greg Ferguson wrote:
[..]

> Does anyone feel we should *not* do this? Let me/us know.

I strongly agree

> Do you think this warrants re-direct files for those under
> tldp.org:/HOWTO/mini/ which will now reside in tldp.org:/HOWTO/?

I think a page which informs the users should be at 
http://tldp.org/HOWTO/HOWTO-INDEX/mini.html

Maybe with a auto-redirection after 10 seconds or so.

I think this is important.

rgds

Luc

On Thu, May 01, 2003 at 06:19:15PM -0400, Greg Ferguson wrote:
> We're strongly considering merging the mini-HOWTOs into
> the set of "full" HOWTOs. In general, we feel it will make
> it easier to navigate and find what you're looking for.
> The structural boundaries (directory structure, sep.
> tar files, etc) will be removed. Authors can still use the
> term "mini HOWTO" in the title of a document to denote 
> those documents that are short and usually very specific 
> in nature, but nothing will separate them from the "full"
> HOWTOs. An outline of some of the changes:

Well, I had proposed that plain text be allowed for mini's but this
needs to be further discussed.  But right now I'm in favor of putting
all the HOWTOs into the same index as you propose.

> 
> * 1 master (combined) list in the HOWTO-INDEX vs. the current 2:
>   full HOWTOs - http://tldp.org/HOWTO/
>   mini HOWTOS - http://tldp.org/HOWTO/mini/
> 
> * One set of tar files per document variant vs. the current 2:
>   http://tldp.org/docs.html#howto
> 
> * Combined directory structure (on ibiblio and tldp.org)
> 
> Does anyone feel we should *not* do this? Let me/us know.
> Do you think this warrants re-direct files for those under
> tldp.org:/HOWTO/mini/ which will now reside in tldp.org:/HOWTO/?

Why not keep the mini's (and the full's) in two places for awhile (and
also keep the mini index)?  Put a note in the mini index that it will
eventually go away in a year or two.  Of couse, a mini, etc. is only
stored one place on the disk but it will look like it's in two places
due to links.  Perhaps this could be also be done for the tar files:
full, mini, and combined.  It shouldn't be much extra work since it
involves setting up combined directories and indexes while leaving the
old ones as is for awhile.

This way people can get used to the new scheme while continuing to use
the old if they want.

			David Lawyer

Greg Ferguson wrote:
> We're strongly considering merging the mini-HOWTOs into

a very good ideé... that was discussed and approved some years ago if I 
remember, but never done. of course, no need to change real place of the 
files, a new index is perfectly nice.

jdd


-- 
<http://www.dodin.net>
Formation Linux débutants open

Hello,

> We're strongly considering merging the mini-HOWTOs into
> the set of "full" HOWTOs. 

Never too late. It seemed LDP admins had never try to search
on a topic in the repositery like a newbie :-)

-- 
Au revoir,                                  33 (0) 2 99 78 62 49
Gilles Lamiral. France, L'Hermitage (35590) 33 (0) 6 20 79 76 06
http://www.sri.ucl.ac.be/SRI/frfc/rfc1855.fr.html

> We're strongly considering merging the mini-HOWTOs into
> the set of "full" HOWTOs. In general, we feel it will make
> it easier to navigate and find what you're looking for.
> The structural boundaries (directory structure, sep.
> tar files, etc) will be removed. Authors can still use the
> term "mini HOWTO" in the title of a document to denote 
> those documents that are short and usually very specific 
> in nature, but nothing will separate them from the "full"
> HOWTOs. An outline of some of the changes:
> 
> * 1 master (combined) list in the HOWTO-INDEX vs. the current 2:
>   full HOWTOs - http://tldp.org/HOWTO/
>   mini HOWTOS - http://tldp.org/HOWTO/mini/
> 
> * One set of tar files per document variant vs. the current 2:
>   http://tldp.org/docs.html#howto
> 
> * Combined directory structure (on ibiblio and tldp.org)

FYI; this has been done. (Only) top-level redirect (index.html, 
<mini-HOWTO>.html) files have been placed in the "mini" directory 
for all docs that have been moved. The 404 message has also been
tailored.

--
Greg