Re: Updates/changes to the HOWTO template.

[Stein Gjoen <sgjoen@mail.nyx.net>]

Gregory Leblanc wrote:
> 
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Stein Gjoen [mailto:sgjoen@mail.nyx.net]
[snip]
> > Inter-HOWTO linking is hard as we cannot know the final file structure
> > in a distribution. All HTML files might be in one huge directory or
> > in their own directory such as
> >       file:///usr/doc/HOWTO/Template/Template.html
> > in which case a simpe relative link will fail.
> > Worse, the HOWTOs might be under /usr/share/doc/HOWTO (for FHS)
> > as opposed to under /usr/doc/HOWTO (as for the traditional FSSTND).
> 
> Hmm, I don't have access to a Linux machine right here, but I want to take a
> look again.  I'm not sure, hmm...  What about just doing relative linking,
> you know, without pointing to a specific place in the filesystem, just a

That solves the FSSTND-FHS issue but not that of single/sub directory
structure. If you wanted to refer to the Template (as an example), would
it be as "./Template.html" or "../Template//Template.html" ?

> HOWTO?  Can we make the stylesheets or some pre-processor smart enough to
> point to the right format of the HOWTO?  The plain text HOWTOs should just
> include the name of that HOWTO, the HTML ones should point to the HTML
> versions, the PDF versions to the PDF versions, etc.

The cleanest solution is to form a sub group of the LDP to create
and maintain RPM files (The Debian maintainer is already in the LDP).
This gives us control over the LDP specific structure and also I
believe this will ensure more distributions package the latest
documents as opposed to 2 year old ones.

> > A post-installation script might work in which case a <HOWTO> tag
> > might come in useful for inter-HOWTO linking.
> >
> > The second problem of finding related HOWTOs by hand requires
> > a single line synopsis and a set of keywords, neither of which
> > is yet supported by LinuxDoc. I do hope I can persuade someone
> > to make it.
> 
> Obviously, I'm not a big fan of Linuxdoc.  I don't think that extending it
> is really worthwhile at this point.  I need to investigate that limited

Well, it does work, and the HTML-files are by default sensibly named
while the DocBook file names look like they went through a shredder.

> DocBook DTD a bit more, and see if it's good for people who don't want to
> try for the full DocBook DTD (although I don't really see why it's
> appealing).  I also got Emacs on Win98 working pretty well on this loaner
> notebook, except that OpenJade doesn't support multi-file DTD's.  What a
> pain.  As soon as I get a Linux machine at home again, I'll work on Emacs
> there.  BTW, I'll do it on a nice, slow SS2 (except for the screenshots,
> since it's only got 8-bit graphics), just to show that the tools don't
> require much horsepower (these machines cost me <$30).
> 
> > > Just as an informational thing, is vger still that
> > overloaded?  I know that
> > > it's running on an SS10 now, rather than the old, slow IPX.
> >  Email through
> > > the lists that I read there seems to be plenty fast,
> > especially since the
> > > CVS repository is gone from there.
> >
> > It seemed fast to me but you might wish to use some of the
> > archives too:
> >       http://www.mail-archive.com/lists.html
> >       http://www.linuxhq.com/lnxlists/
> 
> Ahh, good point, it's nice to have the archives elsewhere.

I submitted these links some time ago but it seems the entire
database of submissions was destroyed beyond repair.

[snip]
> > My impression was that Metalab was specific to the SunSite at UNC.
> > Note that there are SunSites outside the US too.
> 
> D'oh!  I knew that, and I was thinking it, I just typed nation.  :-/  Yes, I
> think that Metalab is specific to UNC, but does that mean that it's enough
> information for the people who aren't already familiar with it?  (BTW,
> Metalab isn't a sunsite anymore, Sun changed the deal for that).

Aha. I didn't know. Still, Metalab (and also ftp.funet.fi) ranks
as the top treasure troves of the net.

> > > I seem to recall someone mentioning a site that tried to
> > keep an up-to-date
> > > list of all of the Linux Users Groups.  It would be nice to
> > include a link
> > > to this site in the help section.
> >
> >       http://www.nlug.org/webring/
> >       http://www.linuxdoc.org/HOWTO/User-Group-HOWTO.html
> >
> > http://www2.linuxjournal.com/cgi-bin/frames.pl/glue/groups/index.html
> >       http://www.linux.org/users/index.html
> 
> Cool!  Thanks!  Perhaps I'll contact the User-Group-HOWTO maintainer and
> find out how up-to-date that document is.  Is there any reference to this
> HOWTO or these links on the page about the LDP lists?

Again, all the links I submitted (and there were many) were lost.
While there seems to be no LDP backup I used many of these links
myself in the Updated mini-HOWTO:
	http://www.nyx.net/~sgjoen/updated.html
specifically
	http://www.nyx.net/~sgjoen/updated-3.html

As usual all coments are welcome.


Regards,
   Stein Gjoen


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