5.1 status page updates

[Giorgos Keramidas]

On 2003-05-08 22:05, Evan Dower <evantd at hotmail.com> wrote:
> At this point, I have very little to offer the project (as a CS major,
> I may have more to offer reasonably soon, but not yet) in terms of
> code, but I do care, and I consider the status page to be valuable.
> For that matter, I keep reasonable track of the -current list.  Hey, I
> could update the status page.  But to whom should I email the updates?
> re? qa? current?

Usually freebsd-doc is ok for updates to doc/* and www/* files.

> And what form should they take? the complete new page? a diff from the
> previous?

Diffs are nice.  Diffs save bandwidth.  They're also easier to read and
quickly find out what the exact nature and form of the change is.

> a diff from the previous from some base directory?
> with some particular options to diff?

It's not really necessary to use a specific base dir.  If you use the -u
or -c option of diff, the patch includes directory info and is usually
easier to read than the default output format of diff(1).

				  ***

If you feel like writing a bit in SGML or XML, then you should
definitely look at the source of the pages using cvsweb or some other
means (i.e. anoncvs, CVSup, etc.) and start making diffs.

For instance, point your browser to the link:
http://cvsweb.freebsd.org/www/en/releases/5.1R/todo.sgml

This is the source of the page:
http://www.freebsd.org/releases/5.1R/todo.html

If SGML is out of your area of interests (CS majors are usually smart
people, who can grasp complex concepts pretty fast, in detail and depth,
so I don't think you can't handle learning SGML evn if you don't know
anything at all about it today), you can always submit changes as plain
text.  One of the most prolific doc PR submitters starts his PRs this
way and then builds up the audit trail with extra info, or patches, as
they become available.

Some times, even a small notice posted to freebsd-doc or freebsd-www like:

	"Page http://foobar/ is wrong about chipset Blah.  It is
	supported by XFree86 X.Y.Z, which is now part of normal releases
	(after 4.Z-REL)."

is very useful.

You should learn how to use send-pr(1) and the gnats database.  It's by
far the best way of posting comments, updates, suggestions, feature or
wish requests, or just complaints about existing bugs.

> Thanks in advance for your advice. I'm very excited to start contributing,
> even in this very small way.

Nice.  Feel free to send us any updates you make.  We (the documentation
team, and the people who work on the website) always welcome an extra
helping hand.

- Giorgos