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On Tue, 17 Jan 2006, Josh wrote: |
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> PS: Though the very idea of an "in-print" Gentoo book is in many ways absurd, as |
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> Gentoo is unique among Linux distros for its generally faster-paced, evolving |
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> nature, these draft handbooks present the best possible approach to actually |
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> publishing a "dead tree" Gentoo guide--something that would be a first for the |
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> distro, AFAIK. Given Gentoo's rapidly changing nature (e.g. fundamental pieces |
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> like Portage and baselayout), the need for a paper Gentoo book might seem |
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> obviated. But I'm strangely attracted to the idea. It seems more doable now that |
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> the draft handbooks have less of a specific Gentoo emphasis. I'd certainly be |
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> interested in seeing Gentoo documentation in print! |
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Over a year ago, I worked on writing some style sheets that could be used |
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with xsltproc to convert the GuideXML documents to LyX format. Then I did |
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various editing and formatting to work on a print format. (It is a lot of |
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work to convert to a book format; the GuideXML is great for HTML and web |
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though.) |
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I also heard from someone who also was working on making the handbook into |
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a print format. But now that over a year has passed, I guess not. |
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One problem I had was that the content (at that time) was constantly |
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changing. It was too time consuming for me to merge in my changes, |
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regenerate the LyX from the GuideXML each time (especially since that |
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would mean losing my later changes), or manually editing both my LyX files |
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and my copies of the orginal GuideXML files. |
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A couple things that would help me: |
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- have a consistent release of the handbook to base it on (like 2005.1); |
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and have a freeze period where I know the handbook would not be updated |
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(except for critical fixes). Then plan for that, such as the print book |
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will be available (already printed) for 2006.2 (second quarter) by April |
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1. |
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- access to real CVS, so I don't have to use web-based CVS or tarballs to |
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merge changes. (Is there publically-available anonymous cvs yet?) |
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It would be good to survey to see if there is a potential market. Do we |
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know at least 100 people would purchase the book? 1000 people? Since |
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Gentoo already has a defined community, this would be easy to find out. |
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Another thing to consider is to make a list of concepts or objectives |
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publically available from the LPI and the BSD Certification Group |
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(ignoring the BSD specific) to see if any "important" areas are missing |
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from the Gentoo (to-be) printed book. |
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Jeremy C. Reed |
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technical support & remote administration |
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http://www.pugetsoundtechnology.com/ |
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-- |
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gentoo-doc@g.o mailing list |
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