Re: CD writing in future Linux (stirring up a hornets' nest)

[Matthias Andree <matthias.andree@gmx.de>]

On Tue, 14 Feb 2006, Greg KH wrote:

> On Tue, Feb 14, 2006 at 12:27:18PM +0100, Joerg Schilling wrote:
> > 
> > Please send me the whitepaper that was used to define the interfaces
> > and functionality of the /sys device
> 
> I was not aware that there is now a rule that we must write whitepapers
> describing as to what the interface looks like in complete detail that
> we want to add to the Linux kernel.  Will you please point me to the
> proper authorities that will be enforcing this newly created rule?

Well, Jörg's questions, although ridiculously exaggerated and quixotic,
show a general problem in Linux: documentation is constantly outdated,
missing, and not part of the kernel package.

If Linux were based in Utopia, it would ship with a complete set of
kernel-related manual pages and HOWTOs.

I appreciate the efforts of the old and new man-pages maintainers, and I
know the problems in motivation when writing documentation and keeping
it up to date distracts people from writing code -- but those people
know their code best.

> > Please send me the other documentation (e.g. man pages) on the /sys
> > device
> 
> What "/sys device"?  sysfs is a file system, and there have been many
> magazine articles, and conference papers written, and talks given on the
> topic.

And that is the key problem. magazine here, conference there, talk
(perhaps only slides available) somewhere else -- a manual that was in
/usr/src/linux/Documentation might make a real difference. Even a
commented link list in Documentation/* might be a good starting point.

Patrick Mochel added some bits three years ago, but they were internals
and thus a bit less interesting.

-- 
Matthias Andree
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