a proposal for the FAQ

Mehmet Erol Sanliturk m.e.sanliturk at gmail.com
Mon Apr 1 11:13:26 UTC 2013


On Mon, Apr 1, 2013 at 2:24 AM, Chris Rees <utisoft at gmail.com> wrote:

> On 1 Apr 2013 05:25, "Eitan Adler" <lists at eitanadler.com> wrote:
> >
> > Hi all,
> >
> > Over the past several months I have been working on a project called
> > ThwackAFAQ.  For those who don't know this project has been to review,
> > edit, and rewrite the FAQ to be relevant to the modern day.
> > I've removed references to hardware that hasn't been sold in over 10
> > years or to software features that reached their EoL in FreeBSD 2.x.
> > At this date I feel the project has reached a level of maturity such
> > that it makes sense to write this email:
> >
> > I propose that we merge the handbook into the FAQ.
> >
> > While they both cover the same material the handbook source is over
> > 83892 lines of XML while the FAQ is now at a measly 8242 lines.
> > Further the FAQ is in bite sized chunks while the FAQ requires lots of
> > tedious reading.  Translators currently have issues keeping up with
> > the pace of changes in both books, and must translate the same basic
> > content twice.  If only we could have one clear and canonical source
> > for translators to work with.
> >
> > Sure there are some topics not covered in the same depth in the FAQ
> > but many Linux distributions solve this in a very nice way: distribute
> > the details and extraneous items to bloggers and tip writers.  This
> > releases us, the doc team, from all the extra work of writing and fact
> > checking things that will no longer be true in the next version of
> > FreeBSD.  Not only that but it even generates more content for the
> > front page where we publish articles written about the operating
> > system.
> >
> > Over the next few weeks (as soon as the doc slush ends) I intend to
> > move the last few remaining portions of the handbook into the FAQ and
> > commit the removal of the handbook once and for all.
>
> I'm going to ruin the April Fool here because I'm worried you'll get
> lynched.
>
> Nice one :)
>
> Chris
>


Actually a more useful step is to move answers to questions into the
Handbook .

The FreeBSD Handbook with its present structure is a very nice work .

Some documentation solely based on questions and answers are not appealing
like the FreeBSD Handbook , and in reality , they are difficult to use ,
because there are no regular structure in them .

Thank you very much .

Mehmet Erol Sanliturk


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