Subject: Re: Some comments
From: Paul Gortmaker <[email-masked]>
To: Linux Documentation Project writers <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 18 Nov 1994 01:59:19 -0500

> 
> 
> > 	   Folks, you MUST format your SGML HOWTOs and run
> > 	   LaTeX/nroff/etc. on them before sending them to me.
> 
> I don't have the disk space to install LaTex.
> 
> I'd still like to see the whole sunsite archive-HOWTO update process automated.
> I imagine something like deliver or some other mail processing tool
> sitting on sunsite somewhere so that authors can mail their HOWTO's to
> an address at sunsite, their address be checked against a known list of

E-mail addresses are too easy to fake. Automation is nice, but there has
to be a certain amount of intervention to make sure things are cool.
Terry, if disk space is a problem, you can send me your .sgml source
when you are done editing it, and I will feed it through LaTeX and see
if it breaks. If it doesn't break, I will mail you back a postcript
(or dvi -- whichever you like) so you can view it and give it a final check.
If it breaks, I will try and fix it, and tell you where it dies.
(I seem like the logical choice, seeing as I am living on the same chunk of
dirt as you are ;-)

Then perhaps we should all upload a gzipped tar file to sunsite with all
the formats (text via nroff, ps via LaTeX, and html) included. Then
Matt can do a "cd /home/ftp/pub/linux/doc/howto;tar -xzf a-howto.tar.gz"
and he is not plagued with all these pedantic errors that show up when 
using different formats.

As for posting, I am going to start posting the Ethernet-Howto to the 
following groups myself, simply because I think it has a prospective
audience there:

	comp.dcoms.lan.ethernet
	comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.networking
	comp.os.linux.help
	comp.os.linux.admin
	aus.computers.linux	(for the local mob ;-)

Since the Howtos cover such a broad range of topics, the posting should
(probably) be left to the author(s). Perhaps an occasional post to
comp.os.linux.announce with a summary of the recent changes (like 
Ian Jackson's summary of the changes to the Linux FAQ) that you have
made to the Howto wouldn't annoy Matt too much. (or Lars, assuming
that he is still doing approvals :-) 

Just my $0.02 (at an exchange rate of $0.74 USD)
Paul.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Paul Gortmaker - Department of Electronics Materials Engineering,
c/o The Research School of Physical Sciences and Engineering,
The Australian National University, Canberra ACT, 0020.
Ph (06) 249 0374  Fax: (06) 249 0511  E-mail: [email-masked]