/etc/motd update

[Brooks Davis]

On Wed, Aug 13, 2014 at 05:51:57PM -0600, Warren Block wrote:
> On Wed, 13 Aug 2014, Brooks Davis wrote:
> 
> > On Wed, Aug 13, 2014 at 02:23:00PM -0600, Warren Block wrote:
> >> The existing /etc/motd breaks many of our document rules and has some
> >> weird language constructs.  The current version in HEAD:
> >> http://svnweb.freebsd.org/base/head/etc/motd?view=co
> >>
> >> Here is a rewrite.  URLs are now the only thing on a line, instead of
> >> inline and hard to locate.  No contractions are used.  Odd phrases are
> >> rephrased:
> >>
> >> Here is the proposed new version and a diff:
> >> http://www.wonkity.com/~wblock/motd/motd
> >> http://www.wonkity.com/~wblock/motd/motd.diff
> >
> >> Making it clear that commands are to be typed without quotes is a little
> >> difficult.  This file is plain text, so no out-of-band highlighting is
> >> available.  ANSI colors or bold could be used, but the terminal is not
> >> guaranteed to be able to display them.  The only really clear way would
> >> be to put commands on a separate line, indented.  That takes up more
> >> space, maybe not a big deal.
> >>
> >> The other issue is whether we should mention the search box on the web
> >> page, which is not very effective at finding things.
> >>
> >> Comments and suggestions welcome.
> >
> > My first thought was that it's definitely better, but too long since 25
> > rows of text won't fit on the default console.
> >
> > My second thought was that a better approach might be to replace most of
> > the contents with a URL like:
> >
> > http://freebsd.org/getting-started-with-freebsd-11
> >
> > and a reference to a local copy of the content a release time.  That
> > would allow unlimited formatting, let us target different user
> > audiences, and let us improve the online version over time.
> 
> That would allow much more vertical space in the actual "intro" file, 
> and clearer explanations:
> 
> Type
>    man man
> for an introduction to manual pages.
> 
> Where should the intro file be stored?  /usr/doc is not always present.

I'd probably use /usr/share/doc/getting-started.txt or something like
that though part of me thinks /GETTING-STARTED would be better if an
annoying heir violation.

-- Brooks
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