discuss: Thread: SPICE (analog simulation) HOWTO proposal and some Docbook issues

Hello --

I just subscribed to this list because I am trying to create a docbook
version of my HOWTO about doing analog circuit simulation on Linux,
and I wanted to follow the "accepted procedure" so that it could be
eventually hosted on tldp.org.  I originally wrote a HOWTO on this
subject about one year ago, and have been hosting it on my website
since then. You can find it here:   

http://www.brorson.com/gEDA/SPICE/intro.html

The whole area of Linux as an engineering workstation is currently
taking off, and I think it valuable to have HOWTOs in place for
the arriving hordes . . . .

Here are some things I'd like to discuss here:

1.  Is the LDP interested in hosting such a HOWTO?  It seems to me
that there is lots of interest in SPICE on Linux:  I field lots of
questions from folks who have used my HOWTO and are trying to do
simulations.  However, I don't want to be presumptous & just mail in
my HOWTO without hearing that the LDP is interested in it.

2.  I am using LyX 1.2.3 to create the docbook sgml.  Unfortunately,
the sgml output of this version of LyX is broken (not well-formed).
Specifically, it seems to often output </SECT3> without an opening
<SECT3>.  Other closing tags are also emitted without an opening tag.
Is this a known problem?  Do other versions of LyX fix this problem?
What (if any) is the known way to fix this?

3.  As far as I can tell, ####@####.#### sends out e-mails
without a [TLDP-Discuss] identification in the subject line.  As
somebody else pointed out earlier, it is unfortunately now common to
receive hundreds of spams/day.  One way I sort out desired e-mail from
spam is to look for an identifying tag in the subject line.  Is it
possible the the LDP could configure the e-mail majordomo to include
an ID tag in the subject line?  

Please forgive my presumption for just barging in here and making a
bunch of requests!  Hopefully I can help out here with some HOWTOs of
interest to electrical engineers and circuit designers!  Thanks for
your time,

Stuart Brorson

At 10:37 5/16/2004, Stuart Brorson wrote:
>3.  As far as I can tell, ####@####.#### sends out e-mails
>without a [TLDP-Discuss] identification in the subject line.  As
>somebody else pointed out earlier, it is unfortunately now common to
>receive hundreds of spams/day.  One way I sort out desired e-mail from
>spam is to look for an identifying tag in the subject line.  Is it
>possible the the LDP could configure the e-mail majordomo to include
>an ID tag in the subject line?

Possible, yes. But this is an argument that has come up many, many times in 
the past on most mailing lists, and the answer is that *yes*, it can be 
done. However, it is not the best or most desirable way to do it since it 
makes list subjects longer, real subjects harder to read, and provides no 
real benefit. "But wait," you say, "how do I separate it from all the spam 
I get?" And the answer is filters.

Every decent mailing list adds several headers which are not immediately 
visible, but which you can see if you want and which you can use. In this 
case, I've posted some of the headers from your message:

Mailing-List: contact ####@####.#### run by ezmlm
List-Post: ####@####.####
List-Help: ####@####.####
List-Unsubscribe: ####@####.####
List-Subscribe: ####@####.####
Delivered-To: mailing list ####@####.####
Subject: SPICE (analog simulation) HOWTO proposal and some Docbook issues
To: ####@####.####

You could, for example, simply select all mail sent to 
####@####.#### and filter that into a separate folder. 99.9% 
accurate right there. Or, you can use any of the other headers to filter. 
The generally accepted "Best Demonstrated Practice" is to put all messages 
of a given type (discuss-list, docbook-list, redhat-list, debian-list, 
wifi-list, personal, etc.) into their own folder using filters. That way 
you can read whatever type of mail you choose at that moment in time. Spam 
will be either left in your inbox, or caught by anti-spam software.

Adding [subj] tags to the subject is a logical idea, and not in itself 
wrong. There is a better way, though, which is why most lists with 
knowledgeable subscribers don't use those tags.

>Please forgive my presumption for just barging in here and making a
>bunch of requests!  Hopefully I can help out here with some HOWTOs of
>interest to electrical engineers and circuit designers!

But how nice of you to barge in! <smile> I wish more people did some 
barging... then Linux would grow and mature and be accepted more quickly. 
Anyway, make yourself at home. I have yet to formally finish and submit 
even my first HOWTO, yet I've been handing out opinions left and right on 
this list for a good six months now. Sorry I can't help you with your other 
questions, but don't worry about the barging; this is a volunteer-operated 
group and they/we welcome anyone who wants to help.

Cheers,


-- 
Rodolfo J. Paiz
####@####.####
http://www.simpaticus.com

Incoming from Stuart Brorson:
> 
> 3.  As far as I can tell, ####@####.#### sends out e-mails
> without a [TLDP-Discuss] identification in the subject line.  As

You're using elm, so I can assume you could use procmail:

# ------------------------------------
# LDP
#
:0
* 1^0 ^TO_.*en\.tldp\.org
* 1^0 ^Delivered-To:.*en\.tldp\.org
{
  LOG="TLDP - "
  :0:
  IN.tldp
}


-- 
Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced.
(*)               http://www.spots.ab.ca/~keeling 
- -

Hi,

">2.  I am using LyX 1.2.3 to create the docbook sgml.  Unfortunately,
>the sgml output of this version of LyX is broken (not well-formed).
>Specifically, it seems to often output </SECT3> without an opening
><SECT3>.  Other closing tags are also emitted without an opening tag.
>Is this a known problem?  Do other versions of LyX fix this problem?
>What (if any) is the known way to fix this?"

Yes their is a way (sort-of).

Check out the lyx-to-x scripts, they were designed by Chris Karakas to fix 
exactly this problem, go to:
http://www.karakas-online.de/myWork/index.html

Installing them is not easy, but they are very well documented and Chris 
will assist you if you post in his forum.

If your looking for some examples that use these scripts, see Chris's 
howto's or my gnu-linux-tools-summary howto (kindly hosted by Chris).

Note: this is now a valid way of submitting to the TLDP.

Regards,
Gareth


>From: ####@####.#### (Stuart Brorson)
>To: ####@####.####
>Subject: SPICE (analog simulation) HOWTO proposal and some Docbook issues
>Date: Sun, 16 May 2004 12:37:30 -0400 (EDT)
>
>Hello --
>
>I just subscribed to this list because I am trying to create a docbook
>version of my HOWTO about doing analog circuit simulation on Linux,
>and I wanted to follow the "accepted procedure" so that it could be
>eventually hosted on tldp.org.  I originally wrote a HOWTO on this
>subject about one year ago, and have been hosting it on my website
>since then. You can find it here:
>
>http://www.brorson.com/gEDA/SPICE/intro.html
>
>The whole area of Linux as an engineering workstation is currently
>taking off, and I think it valuable to have HOWTOs in place for
>the arriving hordes . . . .
>
>Here are some things I'd like to discuss here:
>
>1.  Is the LDP interested in hosting such a HOWTO?  It seems to me
>that there is lots of interest in SPICE on Linux:  I field lots of
>questions from folks who have used my HOWTO and are trying to do
>simulations.  However, I don't want to be presumptous & just mail in
>my HOWTO without hearing that the LDP is interested in it.
>
>2.  I am using LyX 1.2.3 to create the docbook sgml.  Unfortunately,
>the sgml output of this version of LyX is broken (not well-formed).
>Specifically, it seems to often output </SECT3> without an opening
><SECT3>.  Other closing tags are also emitted without an opening tag.
>Is this a known problem?  Do other versions of LyX fix this problem?
>What (if any) is the known way to fix this?
>
>3.  As far as I can tell, ####@####.#### sends out e-mails
>without a [TLDP-Discuss] identification in the subject line.  As
>somebody else pointed out earlier, it is unfortunately now common to
>receive hundreds of spams/day.  One way I sort out desired e-mail from
>spam is to look for an identifying tag in the subject line.  Is it
>possible the the LDP could configure the e-mail majordomo to include
>an ID tag in the subject line?
>
>Please forgive my presumption for just barging in here and making a
>bunch of requests!  Hopefully I can help out here with some HOWTOs of
>interest to electrical engineers and circuit designers!  Thanks for
>your time,
>
>Stuart Brorson
>
>______________________
>http://lists.tldp.org/
>

_________________________________________________________________
Personalise your phone with chart ringtones and polyphonics. Go to  
http://ringtones.com.au/ninemsn/control?page=/ninemsn/main.jsp

####@####.#### (Stuart Brorson) schrieb am 16.05.04 18:37:41:
> 
> 2.  I am using LyX 1.2.3 to create the docbook sgml.  Unfortunately,
> the sgml output of this version of LyX is broken (not well-formed).
> Specifically, it seems to often output </SECT3> without an opening
> <SECT3>.  Other closing tags are also emitted without an opening tag.
> Is this a known problem?  Do other versions of LyX fix this problem?
> What (if any) is the known way to fix this?
> 

As Guru already said, I have created some scripts that correct LyX' SGML and do a lot of other nice things too. They are described in:

http://www.karakas-online.de/mySGML/

Currently, only 1.2.0 is working (maybe also 1.2.1, but I don't know about 1.2.3). Versions 1.3.2 and 1.3.4 do NOT work for DocBook, due to bugs in LyX. I am in contact with the LyX development team to iron these issues out.

Feel free to post such questions in my Linux Forum in:

http://www.karakas-online.de/forum/

and we will fix it, just as we did with Guru's HOWTO. :-)

-- 
Regards

Chris Karakas
http://www.karakas-online.de

On Sun, May 16, 2004 at 12:37:30PM -0400, Stuart Brorson wrote:
> Hello --
> 
> I just subscribed to this list because I am trying to create a docbook
> version of my HOWTO about doing analog circuit simulation on Linux,
> and I wanted to follow the "accepted procedure" so that it could be
> eventually hosted on tldp.org.  I originally wrote a HOWTO on this
> subject about one year ago, and have been hosting it on my website
> since then. You can find it here:   
> 
> http://www.brorson.com/gEDA/SPICE/intro.html

I know zip about SPICE, so my only suggestions are:

* A "resources" section. I would aim it toward the intermediate SPICE
  user migrating to Linux. Also maybe a few general SPICE resources.

* A paragraph or two of "What is SPICE?" for the reader who wants to
  do circuit design but doesn't know what SPICE is or does.

> 
> The whole area of Linux as an engineering workstation is currently
> taking off, and I think it valuable to have HOWTOs in place for
> the arriving hordes . . . .
> 
> Here are some things I'd like to discuss here:
> 
> 1.  Is the LDP interested in hosting such a HOWTO?  It seems to me
> that there is lots of interest in SPICE on Linux:  I field lots of
> questions from folks who have used my HOWTO and are trying to do
> simulations.  However, I don't want to be presumptous & just mail in
> my HOWTO without hearing that the LDP is interested in it.

I think it's a good idea.

> 
> Please forgive my presumption for just barging in here and making a
> bunch of requests!  

Forgive, heck. Why should you be different from the rest of us. :-)

-- 

Charles Curley                  /"\    ASCII Ribbon Campaign
Looking for fine software       \ /    Respect for open standards
and/or writing?                  X     No HTML/RTF in email
http://www.charlescurley.com    / \    No M$ Word docs in email

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