discuss: Thread: volunteering for some TLDP work

Hello TLDP volunteers, authors and lurkers,

I'm an LDP contributor (1 guide, 2 howtos), very occasional reviewer 
(between 2002 and 2005), and mailing list lurker (since about 2002).

I recently read Serge's comment that he was the only member of the 
LDP volunteer team.  Well, that won't do!  Thus, I'm volunteering to 
join the team and contribute.

Until about six months ago, and for more than a decade prior, Greg 
Ferguson quietly provided all of our document processing and 
publication services.  As one volunteer to another (though he's 
gone), I'd like to thank him for all of his years of work for TLDP.

Over the years, this mailing list has frequently seen postings about 
the value of TLDP documents.  (I remember well the value to me of 
Matt Welsh's book _Running Linux_ which I bought as a Linux beginner 
in about 1997 or so.)

We continue to hear people like J.S. Evans (thank you, by the way 
for your engagement, concern and kind words) describing how valuable 
our documentation is.

I volunteer to help steward this value of the LDP, and try to help 
us build a toolchain to accomplish what Greg Ferguson accomplished 
for so many years.

I'm ready to commit some small number of hours (say five) per week 
for some as-yet unspecified duration.

So, TLDP folk, you may see some email from me in the coming days,

-Martin

-- 
Martin A. Brown
http://linux-ip.net/

Le 26/01/2016 20:38, Martin A. Brown a écrit :

> So, TLDP folk, you may see some email from me in the coming days,

thank you,Martin :-)

jdd

Hello all,

Long time lurker and follower of this project since almost its inception. I
would like to stand by Martin and volenteer my time, as well. I can offer a
few hours a week. Please let me know what i can do or what jobs need to get
done.

-Paul

On Tue, Jan 26, 2016 at 12:38 PM, Martin A. Brown ####@####.####
wrote:

>
> Hello TLDP volunteers, authors and lurkers,
>
> I'm an LDP contributor (1 guide, 2 howtos), very occasional reviewer
> (between 2002 and 2005), and mailing list lurker (since about 2002).
>
> I recently read Serge's comment that he was the only member of the
> LDP volunteer team.  Well, that won't do!  Thus, I'm volunteering to
> join the team and contribute.
>
> Until about six months ago, and for more than a decade prior, Greg
> Ferguson quietly provided all of our document processing and
> publication services.  As one volunteer to another (though he's
> gone), I'd like to thank him for all of his years of work for TLDP.
>
> Over the years, this mailing list has frequently seen postings about
> the value of TLDP documents.  (I remember well the value to me of
> Matt Welsh's book _Running Linux_ which I bought as a Linux beginner
> in about 1997 or so.)
>
> We continue to hear people like J.S. Evans (thank you, by the way
> for your engagement, concern and kind words) describing how valuable
> our documentation is.
>
> I volunteer to help steward this value of the LDP, and try to help
> us build a toolchain to accomplish what Greg Ferguson accomplished
> for so many years.
>
> I'm ready to commit some small number of hours (say five) per week
> for some as-yet unspecified duration.
>
> So, TLDP folk, you may see some email from me in the coming days,
>
> -Martin
>
> --
> Martin A. Brown
> http://linux-ip.net/
>
> ______________________
> http://lists.tldp.org/
>
>


-- 
Thanks,

Paul Hendricksen

On Wed, Jan 27, 2016 at 6:47 AM, Paul Hendricksen
####@####.#### wrote:
> Hello all,
>
> Long time lurker and follower of this project since almost its inception. I
> would like to stand by Martin and volenteer my time, as well. I can offer a
> few hours a week. Please let me know what i can do or what jobs need to get
> done.

Hi Paul,
assuming that Martin will be able to re-create the docbook processing
chain, there are four major needs for the project:

A) update of the LDP Guide, focused on explanation of git submissions

B) adding other documentation formats to the processing chain (via pandoc)

C) update again of the LDP Guide with information of other accepted formats

D) reviewing and accepting pull requests coming to LDP via github.

Big thanks,
Serge

Hello there Paul,

>Long time lurker and follower of this project since almost its 
>inception.

Wow!  That's a long time!

>I would like to stand by Martin and volenteer my time, as well. I 
>can offer a few hours a week. Please let me know what i can do or 
>what jobs need to get done.

I think there are a few different classes of work:

  1) technical, much of which Serge outlined in his reply

  2) review and outreach,

  3) revision of 

  A) update of the LDP Guide, focused on explanation of git submissions

B) adding other documentation formats to the processing chain (via 
pandoc)

C) update again of the LDP Guide with information of other accepted 
formats

D) reviewing and accepting pull requests coming to LDP via github.


-Martin

-- 
Martin A. Brown
http://linux-ip.net/

I'd like to help with the LDP Guide work.  About time I got back into this.
-Mark

-------- Original message --------
From: "Martin A. Brown" ####@####.#### 
Date: 1/26/2016  8:15 PM  (GMT-05:00) 
To: Paul Hendricksen ####@####.#### 
Cc: ####@####.#### 
Subject: Re: volunteering for some TLDP work 


Hello there Paul,

>Long time lurker and follower of this project since almost its 
>inception.

Wow!  That's a long time!

>I would like to stand by Martin and volenteer my time, as well. I 
>can offer a few hours a week. Please let me know what i can do or 
>what jobs need to get done.

I think there are a few different classes of work:

  1) technical, much of which Serge outlined in his reply

  2) review and outreach,

  3) revision of 

  A) update of the LDP Guide, focused on explanation of git submissions

B) adding other documentation formats to the processing chain (via 
pandoc)

C) update again of the LDP Guide with information of other accepted 
formats

D) reviewing and accepting pull requests coming to LDP via github.


-Martin

-- 
Martin A. Brown
http://linux-ip.net/

______________________
http://lists.tldp.org/

Hello Paul,

>> Long time lurker and follower of this project since almost its 
>> inception. I would like to stand by Martin and volenteer my time, 
>> as well. I can offer a few hours a week. Please let me know what 
>> i can do or what jobs need to get done.
>
>Hi Paul,
>assuming that Martin will be able to re-create the docbook processing
>chain, there are four major needs for the project:

I think I will be able to re-create a largely automated DocBook 
processing system, given how mature the toolchain is under modern 
systems.  See prior messages.

I'll add to Serge's reply:

>A) update of the LDP Guide, focused on explanation of git submissions

  Yes, please.  It says stuff about CVS at this point.
  http://www.tldp.org/LDP/LDP-Author-Guide/html/cvs.html

  Would be nice to have that point to our git repo.
  There have been questions from people who do not wish to have 
  accounts on the github.com corporate service.  All fine, we can 
  take patches in email or, presumably via another git repo of a 
  committer.  You could refer anybod not wanting to have a 
  github.com account to the ####@####.#### list, I'd think.

>B) adding other documentation formats to the processing chain (via pandoc)

  This has been requested many times.  I'm personally unfamiliar 
  with pandoc, and would be interested in hearing the thoughts of 
  others on supporting additional formats.

  If we can support DocBook XML 5.0, that seems like a good thing.

  AsciiDoc has come up several times.

>C) update again of the LDP Guide with information of other accepted formats
>
>D) reviewing and accepting pull requests coming to LDP via github.

I think this is where the LDP policy step comes in.  We have, 
historically, had a policy of content review followed by technical 
review.  If you would like to try a stab at that, I know that J.S. 
Evans just submitted a Package-Management-Basics.xml file that could 
probably use both content and technical review.

I am less familiar with this part of the LDP process, as it was 
largely handled in prior years by (at different times) David 
Merrill, Tabatha (Persad) Marshall, Emma Jane Hogbin, Machtelt 
(Tille) Garrels and probably others whom I'm forgetting.

Maybe this is of use (dated 2004):

  http://ibiblio.org/gferg/ldp/css/LDP-Reviewer-HOWTO/index.html

Best,

-Martin

P.S. Sorry for the crappily-crafted first reply.  My fingers got 
  ahead of my brain.

-- 
Martin A. Brown
http://linux-ip.net/

Hello there Mark,

>I'd like to help with the LDP Guide work.  About time I got back into this.

I remember seeing your name a bunch, several years ago.

I notice that you are one of the authors of the current LDP guide.  

I think it would be wonderful to once again be a vibrant 
organization that would draw people to publish their documentation 
with us.  What would you like to do with the LDP Guide?

I have not re-read the LDP Author Guide [0] in some time, but I 
would think we (as a group) could stand to make sure that it is 
still accurate and then synchronize that with the LDP FAQ [1].

Of course the bit about our VCS needs updating, as Serge mentioned.  

Nice to see you on the list again!

-Martin

 [0] http://www.tldp.org/LDP/LDP-Author-Guide/html/index.html
 [1] http://www.tldp.org/FAQ/LDP-FAQ/

-- 
Martin A. Brown
http://linux-ip.net/

On 1/26/2016 8:43 PM, Martin A. Brown wrote:
> Hello there Mark,
>
>> I'd like to help with the LDP Guide work.  About time I got back into this.
> I remember seeing your name a bunch, several years ago.
>
> I notice that you are one of the authors of the current LDP guide.
>
> I think it would be wonderful to once again be a vibrant
> organization that would draw people to publish their documentation
> with us.  What would you like to do with the LDP Guide?
Whatever you need done.  I'm quite rusty on both Docbook and the current 
submission processes, so I'd need to get back up to speed on that, then 
get information on what the new processes are and update.  I honestly 
haven't touched either in probably 10 years (shows how long I've been 
lurking).

-Mark