Doc BoF at EuroBSDCon

[Tom Rhodes]

On Fri, 3 Dec 2004 13:29:34 +0000
Len Zettel <zettel at acm.org> wrote:

> On Friday 03 December 2004 05:36 pm, Tom Rhodes wrote:
> > On Thu, 2 Dec 2004 23:12:28 +0100
> >
> > Marc Fonvieille <blackend at FreeBSD.org> wrote:
> > > On Thu, Dec 02, 2004 at 04:43:45PM -0500, Tom Rhodes wrote:
> > > > Would be nice, but are you sure you can't come up with a better
> > > > solution?
> > >
> > > I wrote the thing in 2001, I committed it in late 2002 (I think, I
> > > should check the CVS), so my memories are not really good.  I remember I
> > > did not chose some solutions cause of the jadetex part, the fact
> > > make(1) should be able to build en_US images mixed with localized one
> > > (different path), the fact we should avoid to use too much disk spaces
> > > (copying images), etc.  It's quite complex because you have to take care
> > > about many things at same time.
> >
> > Leave it in there for now.  We'll cross this bridge when we
> > come to it.  Lets not go off in a million directions at once,
> > that'll just get us in the mess we have now.
> 
> If you don't mind an ignorant outsider butting in here....

Never!  :)

> 
> It seems plain to me that the guys doing the doc project are
> overworked and underappreciated.  It would help a lot if
> there were more hands and minds doing all the things
> that need to be done.

Yes.

> 
> It would help if it were easier to join the doc project.
> I don't claim that you guys have barricades and
> machine guns mowing down prospective newcomers.
> I mean it is downright difficult to gain the knowledge
> and expertrise that would let one become a really
> productive member of the team.

True.  In src/ there are some places where no one is working
and anyone with a clue in that area could come in and just
start working on it.  In the doc project, everyone works everywhere.
We don't really follow the MAINTAINERS ideas and goals, because
we are a smaller group with a smaller set of data; less collisions.

> 
> This could change if three things moved up the
> priority list.
> 1) Fixing the doc infrastructure so it worked as
> advertised.
> 
> 2) Updating the advertising so a newbie could
> find out how it worked without a lot of thrashing around.
> 
> 3) Laying out a systematic plan to accomplish 1) and 2)
> that had realistic time shedules.  Said plan, as far as
> possible, should go for incremental steps rather than a
> massive change all in one blast, but each step should 
> clearly lead to the overall goal.
> 
> Easy to say, isn't it? ;-)

True, but we have a problem.  No one here is in a leadership
role and everyone just does what they want.  Which works
fine but now we have a lot of bitrot and broken parts.

In an ideal world, someone from doceng would step up and start
working on something.  Everyone would follow them and start
working in that area.  Wash, rinse, repeat.  But we as a team
rarely sit down and actually choose:

What needs to be done;
Who will do it;
etc etc.

Another problem is that this is volunteer.  There are very few
people who are paid for doing this.  With regards to the doc
team, I think only Murray and myself are those individuals.  And
I still cannot really offer an entire day up for doc work.
So assigning tasks as if a company is moot right now.

Not really sure what the best way to go about getting things
done around here would be other than:

Post a list of tasks of mixed sizes,
Request people (people, not committers not contributors) to grab a task,
Commit completed work after some minor/major review,
As one task is completed another is grabbed up.

Hopefully some others will chime in here and let me know how
they feel about this.  Perhaps we should 'elect' a temporary
project manager and just start getting things done.  Perhaps
that is a bad idea.  I don't know, what does everybody
think?

-- 
Tom Rhodes