RE: The future of this book

[Boehne, Robert]

I agree with Akim and vote for #1.  As an editor I didn't stand
to gain much from O'Reiley publishing it other than the "fame".
Although it's great to expand documentation, which is always
lacking for any software, there is a real need for a more casual
format like this to give users the big picture.

Robert Boehne

-----Original Message-----
From: Akim Demaille [mailto:address@hidden
Sent: Monday, March 31, 2003 1:20 AM
To: Programming GNU Tools 2E
Cc: Autoconf Task Force
Subject: The future of this book



OK, that's it, O'Reilly left us.  I read Andy's view of this failure,
and see that have not lived the same story ---but that's the common
point is both views: the constant misunderstanding :).

Now there remains material, and even great material.  Let's save it.

I can see two scenarios:

1. A GNU Free Book

Let's make it a real GNU project: contact RMS, find a maintainer, and
keep it alive.  The Goat book is great, but is becoming less and less
a great book because it is not sync'ed with reality.  This should not
happen again.  In addition, the scope of the Goat book is narrower
than that this one.  So there is definitely a vacuum to fill IMO.

This book needs a maintainer, as IMNSHO that's what lacked amongst us,
and led to this disaster.



2. Scavenging

We could steal some pieces of this documentation, and port them into
the "real" documentation.  For instance, the Autoconf, Autotest and
Bison documentation would be happy with the addition of some of these
parts.




I think number 2 would be a great loss, as what makes this book unique
is being about a single project: GNU M4.  That was an excellent idea
from Gary, and we should definitely stick to it.  All the
documentation we read and compiled in there are disparate, and offer
no gentle introduction to the GNU world.  There is a need for this.

I vote for scenario 1.  With a bit of luck, writing a chapter in the
book could become another part of the normal maintenance activity, and
people will want to write their bits in it.  Sort of a GNU Hello, but
for documentation.


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