Re: The Hurd Users Guide

[Marcus Brinkmann]

On Wed, May 22, 2002 at 11:45:19AM -0400, Matthew Grant wrote:
> Hi folks,
> 
> I have started a draft of the Hurd's Users
> guide. I have gathered alot of info and have
> been using the Hurd since the F releases(not
> very long). I am really excited about
> writing this.

Cool, that sounds like a great idea.

> I just had a few questions. Is there already
> a users guide that just needs updateing or
> am I on the right track writing a new one.

There is a manual in the doc directory of the Hurd source tree.
It claims to be for users and developers, but I would say that it is
currently more a reference manual than anything else, and definitely
incomplete and out of date.  I don't see a hard reason why it couldn't
be one book with two parts, or however one would want to srtucture it.

but in anyway you should take a look at it as you get a texinfo template
for free, and there already are some user things in there (a few
explanations, and some command invocations).  You know better what you
have in mind, so it's you who makes the initial decision if to improve
on that or going from scratch makes more sense.

> I
> also am wondering If since I'm
> just starting to learn texinfo can I put the
> plain text files somewhere for people to
> critique and tell me whats wrong with my
> wording and such. 

Sure.  If you need such a place maybe it can be added to the hurd-extras
savannah project until it has matured.  But if it is more for the current
manual, diffs should be ok too.  BTW, if you want it to be part of the
Hurd or GNU in general you should think early about copyright issues.

Please read the GNU coding standards, there is a chapter about documentation
there, too.  And of course you should glance over the TexInfo manual as well.

Thanks,
Marcus