On Sunday 10 May 2009, Rahul Sundaram wrote: >On 05/10/2009 10:24 PM, Gene Heskett wrote: >>> https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/How_to_create_an_RPM_package >>> >>> Rahul >> >> Which, if printed, is still 29 pages, Rahul. > >Number of pages is a very meaningless metric to decide the scope of >useful documentation. I have worked as a technical writer and >determining the usefulness or conciseness of a document is a much harder >task than simply counting the number of pages. You can shorten the >number by reducing the size of the font. Would that make it more >concise, suddenly? > >Note that above page can be shortened by excluding information or adding >more references but it all depends on the audience. > >> Clear and Concise writing seems to be a lost art. There has been 10x more >> pages written on rpm now, than Kernigan & Ritchie put in the original C >> book, but that book, and its successor (I have both) can be used for a >> demo of how to write clear, concise docs. > >K&R C book is reference material. Hardly a beginner introduction. Ask >someone who has actually spend time building both RPM and DEB packages, >which one has been easier and why. Finding a random PDF online and >blaming the tool is hardly the sensible thing to do. Simplicity is not >the same as simple. > >Building software is inherently a complex task. Tools can only help so >far. RPM is only a small part of it. Eventually you will have to learn >different source code management tools (earlier just cvs. now add git, >mercurial and more), compiler and other core utilities (sed, awk, perl >...), build automation tools (again, these keep increasing - autotools, >cmake and so on), build system tools and so on. After years, one will >barely have scratched the surface of the full scope of these. > >Rahul And at my age, I don't have the years left it would take to absorb all that and do it well. Not excusing myself, but them are the facts. -- Cheers, Gene "There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order." -Ed Howdershelt (Author) McDonald's -- Because you're worth it. -- fedora-list mailing list fedora-list@xxxxxxxxxx To unsubscribe: https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-list Guidelines: http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Communicate/MailingListGuidelines
