Re: confusion in left frame of the website

[Marcus Brinkmann]

On Tue, Aug 26, 2003 at 07:16:30PM +0000, Robert Millan wrote:
> > On Sat, Aug 23, 2003 at 06:28:20PM +0000, Robert Millan wrote:
> > > There's no link for installing the Hurd. For GNU Mach we have some notes 
> > > [1]
> > > about build dependencies, cross-compiling, etc. But for the Hurd there are
> > > no such notes. What you will find in their place are notes for installing
> > > a Debian GNU/Hurd distribution.
> > 
> > Right.  Installing the Hurd itself is something that is peculiar to do.  For
> > example, as of today, if you install the Hurd via make install, it will
> > overwrite the /libexec/rc file and thus wipe out some of the Debian specific
> > code in it from the Debian package.
> > 
> > [...]
> 
> I find this sort of notes worthy of being under "the Hurd" installation
> section (actualy I didn't know at all about them).

Only if we decide that this is how it should be.  I have a strong reluctance
against documenting bugs that are easy to fix, and state of development
software which is in flux (by some meaning of "flux" ;)
 
> GNU 0.2 (no link as it's obsolete)

Right.

> Gentoo GNU/Hurd (http://hurd.rustedhalo.net/about.php)
> Bee GNU/Hurd 
> (http://mail.gnu.org/archive/html/savannah-hackers/2003-07/msg00332.html)

Now that is something I didn't know about.
 
> > If we do this, I would highly recommend that someone updates the Debian
> > GNU/Hurd port page for the Hurd before that.
> 
> I don't understand what you mean here, what do these (mutualy exclussive)
> tasks mean:
> 
> > 1. Update the Debian GNU/Hurd pages.
> > [...]
> > 2. Write a GNU/Hurd page that is content-wise comparable to what the current
> >    web page has on installation of the GNU/Hurd (under The Hurd Install or
> >    whatever else is around)

Well, the current content of the Hurd web pages is limited to what is
reasonably stable (so we don't need to change it often) and works.

If you are serious about what you suggested, you would also have to make the
distinction between Debian GNU/Hurd and GNU/Hurd in general.  The best way
to do this is to not have any Debian GNU/Hurd specific information on the
GNU page at all, but only refer to Debian GNU/Hurd ports page.  Which
exists, but is out of date and I would not feel good about letting the user
rely on that solely.  That is option 1.  Option 2 is to not rely on external
sources, but to avoid doing what Debian GNU/Hurd should do we would have to
restrict ourselve to some minimum amount of information (Neal's guide, in
particular).

Thanks,
Marcus

-- 
`Rhubarb is no Egyptian god.' GNU      http://www.gnu.org    address@hidden
Marcus Brinkmann              The Hurd http://www.gnu.org/software/hurd/
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