please decrypt your manuals

[Doru Georgescu]

--- On Tue, 4/20/10, Lars Nooden <lars.curator at gmail.com> wrote:

> From: Lars Nooden <lars.curator at gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: please decrypt your manuals
> To: "Doru Georgescu" <headset001 at yahoo.com>
> Cc: "OpenSSH" <openssh-unix-dev at mindrot.org>
> Date: Tuesday, April 20, 2010, 3:48 AM
> On Tue, 20 Apr 2010, Doru Georgescu
> wrote:
> > I believe that ...
> 
> Let's not have speculation.
> 

It has been said several times in this thread that the manual is good enough for those who already know ssh. And it is. This is not speculation. 

> The scope for openssh manual pages is to address the
> components specific to the openssh suite.

I won't argue on that. 

> The manuals are not remedial tutorials to cover the basics
> of system administration.  There are already whole
> websites dedicated to that level of training even if it
> might no longer be available at college.

The manuals are not many things. 

> You can submit a patch to the manuals or the source code if
> you have the skill to make changes and make a diff of your
> changes.  What happens to that patch after being
> submitted is a whole different matter. (*)

Precisely because ssh is the work of a community, it is largely meaningless for me to write a manual alone, without tight cooperation with that community. The manual should transmit information from developers to users. For this to happen, a language (symbols, terminology, structure, logical implication rules) should be developed. The very idea that I can do this alone, outside the developers' community, is absurd. Of course such a manual would be rejected, because it would not make any sense to the developers. 

Plus, I completely lack the resources for such a work. 

Doru 

> 
> /Lars
> 
> * FOSS projects are under no obligation to accept or
> integrate patches from random e-yobs regardless of how many
> Microsoft partners tell you otherwise at their
> pseudo-conferences, -seminars or other marketing
> functions.  Either the patch fits with the projects
> goals and quality guidelines or it does not.  If it
> does not, either the idea it is illustrating fits with the
> project goals or does not.
>