On Sat, Dec 06, 2008 09:31:55 AM -0800, Les wrote: > On Sat, 2008-12-06 at 12:04 +0100, M. Fioretti wrote: > > > 1) be ABLE to write good documentation. You yourself acknowledged > > good "documenters" are scarce. You're either good at it or you > > aren't, it's just like programming or any other complex > > creative activity. > .... > > I haven't written anything for LINUX, but I can tell you that the > biggest issue is getting "something" on paper (in bits?). Once the > first effort is in, LOTS of people can "fix it" and even copy it and > redo some or most of it... That's OK, if your intention is to get > information into the Linux sphere. I was **explicitly** speaking, see the quote above, of **good** documentation. And since I already wrote how weak I find assumptions like yours above, I'll simply point you to Point 1 of http://digifreedom.net/node/61. > So, my advice is "just do it". someone will fix it. Here I could simply answer "after you, please" or repeat what I wrote above: we're talking about quality, not quantity. But I have a very fresh, real world example of somebody who "just did it" and things didn't go as you say, so I'll let that speak for itself. Have a look to the thread about Postfix How-tos starting at http://archives.neohapsis.com/archives/postfix/2008-12/0133.html the thread summary is: - postfix gurus only wrote good, but too difficult docs - some popular postfix howtos (by other people who "just did them") are broken - newbies read **those** docs only, as the "official" ones are too difficult - they make mistakes following those docs, ask how to fix them to the postfix list. This happens several times a year. - every time, postfix gurus answer "those docs are broken, check the official docs" - for any number of reasons, postfix gurus have no plan to write better howtos themselves - nobody but postfix gurus could write better howtos than those already available, or fix those ones. Excepted a good technical writer **paid** enough to spend on the subject lots of time, since it isn't an easy task by any means. Marco -- Your own civil rights and the quality of your life heavily depend on how software is used *around* you: http://digifreedom.net/node/84 -- fedora-list mailing list fedora-list@xxxxxxxxxx To unsubscribe: https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-list Guidelines: http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Communicate/MailingListGuidelines
