From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Received: from pigeon.gentoo.org ([208.92.234.80] helo=lists.gentoo.org) by finch.gentoo.org with esmtp (Exim 4.60) (envelope-from ) id 1NyMkc-0006YG-2F for garchives@archives.gentoo.org; Sun, 04 Apr 2010 10:08:18 +0000 Received: from pigeon.gentoo.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by pigeon.gentoo.org (Postfix) with SMTP id 25134E0C72; Sun, 4 Apr 2010 10:08:16 +0000 (UTC) Received: from smtp.gentoo.org (smtp.gentoo.org [140.211.166.183]) by pigeon.gentoo.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 7292CE0C33 for ; Sun, 4 Apr 2010 10:08:02 +0000 (UTC) Received: from angelstorm (cpe-76-93-187-113.san.res.rr.com [76.93.187.113]) (using TLSv1 with cipher DHE-RSA-AES128-SHA (128/128 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by smtp.gentoo.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id E170067C10 for ; Sun, 4 Apr 2010 10:08:01 +0000 (UTC) Date: Sun, 4 Apr 2010 03:07:55 -0700 From: Joshua Saddler To: gentoo-dev@lists.gentoo.org Subject: Re: [gentoo-dev] Is Gentoo dying? Message-ID: <20100404030755.409290d2@angelstorm> In-Reply-To: References: <1270286192.18734.3.camel@homer.ob.libexec.de> <20100403184831.2525766f@angelstorm> X-Mailer: Claws Mail 3.7.5 (GTK+ 2.18.7; x86_64-pc-linux-gnu) Precedence: bulk List-Post: List-Help: List-Unsubscribe: List-Subscribe: List-Id: Gentoo Linux mail X-BeenThere: gentoo-dev@lists.gentoo.org Reply-to: gentoo-dev@lists.gentoo.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: multipart/signed; micalg=PGP-SHA1; boundary="Sig_/2Mc/Vsf3qYIAzAkf_6hhhsI"; protocol="application/pgp-signature" X-Archives-Salt: c79d8275-bbac-4b7f-a133-573cce0e71fe X-Archives-Hash: 022b06e44fc333a9a4fd782ebf1a767c --Sig_/2Mc/Vsf3qYIAzAkf_6hhhsI Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable On Sun, 4 Apr 2010 10:22:06 +0200 "Tobias Scherbaum" wrote: > 5 years ago [...] constantly added [...] You need to clarify your metric. How are you defining constant? How often d= oes a new document need to appear? What mostly happens is steady refinement and expansion of our existing docs= , occasionally splitting off long portions into their own document, or merg= ing a few back together where appropriate. Stuff that's written fully from scratch is much rarer than you think, and i= t's been that way for a long time. I'm not saying that's a bad thing; that'= s just how it is. Two noteworthy exceptions: 2005 and 2006. Those were years when we had all = the English speaking GDP members writing. I came on board in 2005 and immed= iately helped crank out docs and updates, and worked with folks to get new = stuff into the tree. 2005 was a good year both for the GDP and for external= contributors to help write stuff and add patches, which is why we saw much= more diversity in our new docs. Since then, the list of active English writers in the GDP has declined to o= ne and it's been that way for a few years now, so that partly explains the = slowdown in docs. Another is that we just aren't getting as many new submis= sions since the days when (apparently) we had more willing developers to pi= tch in with the docs. Many of the 2005/2006 guides have had their primary authors/contributors di= sappear, leaving us without an easy way to keep them up-to-date. The GDP ca= n't maintain a doc if we don't have someone, internal or external, who can = devote time to keeping docs up-to-date. Lots of those 2005/2006 additions n= eed serious overhaul, or I'll have to mark 'em deprecated/draft or even rem= ove them entirely. Some of the guides written years ago have been removed from the tree. Part = of maintaining documents is not just writing new ones, but treecleaning, if= you will, our existing collection. It's not as attention-getting as a tota= lly new guide. I can't promise attention-getting news releases for every do= c or website change I make. * * * Here, I'll take 2 hours to go through our complete CVS history for our docs= in /doc/en/ and create a list of what was added or removed in the last 5 y= ears. This list doesn't *begin* to include total rewrites or near-total rewrites = (such as the printing, gnome, X11 guides) or whether the rewrites were made= in just one day or over time as packages and methods have evolved. It does= n't cover the handbooks, nor the handbooks I wrote entirely from scratch in= 2006 to cover the new GLI installers (and their subsequent removal after 2= 008's releases). It also does not include documents that have since been marked "draft" or "= deprecated" or some other maintainance status besides "active." I expect so= me of the docs on this list to still be in "draft" or to have moved to it o= r "deprecated," so whether they really count is up to you to decide. If you= want to average docs on a monthly or yearly basis . . . you can tweak the = numbers all you want. Note, also, that just because you don't see a doc on it in the last 5 years= doesn't mean we don't already have a wealth of published info on a subject= in our existing documentation. Something that was added in, say, 2002 or 2= 004 is prolly very complete, and covers lots of stuff you'd normally find i= n separate articles elsewhere, for example on wikis. I'm not putting much h= ere besides the files added/removed. This is just stuff that's initially added to or removed from CVS. *2010* Nothing totally new added nor anything completely removed. Hey, the year is= young. Lots of rewrites though. *2009* Same. Mostly extensive rewrites, most notably the handbooks to take into ac= count the autobuilds. New: bind-guide.xml New: lxde-howto.xml New: openbox.xml Removed: ldapdns-guide.xml (added 2006) Removed: gentoo-sparc-quickinstall.xml (added 2004) *2008* New: multipath.xml New: nagios-guide.xml (draft) New: openrc-migration.xml Removed: apache-developer.xml (added 2005) Removed: apache-troubleshooting.xml (added 2005) Removed: apache-upgrading.xml (added 2005) Removed: kde-config.xml (added 2004) Removed: kde-split-ebuilds (added 2005) *2007* New: gcc-optimization.xml New: pda-guide.xml (draft) New: vpnc-howto.xml New: xen-guide.xml New: xfce-config.xml Removed: colinux-howto.xml (added 2004) Removed: mysql-upgrade-slotted (added 2006, but mysql team reverted SLOTtin= g) Removed: nx-guide.xml (added 2004) Removed: openmosix-howto.xml (added 2003) *2006* New: change-chost.xml New: conky-howto.xml New: cross-compiling-distcc.xml New: gentoo-alpha-faq.xml New: gentoo-x86+raid+lvm2-quickinstall.xml New: info-guide.xml New: jffnms.xml New: kernel-config.xml New: ldapdns-guide.xml (removed 2009) New: liveusb.xml New: man-guide.xml New: portage-utils.xml New: postgres-howto.xml New: vdr-guide.xml New: zsh.xml Removed: java-old.xml (added 2006) Removed: vserver-howto.xml (added 2005) *2005* New: apache-developer.xml (removed 2008) New: apache-troubleshooting.xml (removed 2008) New: apache-upgrading.xml (removed 2008) New: bluetooth-guide.xml (deprecated; needs total rewrite) New: bugzilla-howto.xml New: fluxbox-config.xml New: gcc-upgrading.xml (imported from toolchain /proj/ doc) New: gentoo-amd64-faq.xml New: gentoo-freebsd.xml (deprecated; needs total rewrite) New: gentoo-mips-faq.xml New: gpm.xml New: grub-error-guide.xml New: hpc-howto (imported from cluster /proj/ doc) New: mailfilter-guide.xml New: mysql-howto.xml New: mysql-upgrading.xml New: sudo-guide.xml New: usb-guide.xml New: utf-8.xml New: vserver-howto.xml (removed 2006) Removed: macos-guide.xml (added 2004) Removed: gentoo-alpha-compaq-tools.xml (added 2003) Removed: 2.6-koutput.xml (added 2004) Removed: 2.6-koutput-user.xml (added 2004) Removed: gentoo-security.xml (added 2002) Removed: modular-x-howto.xml (added 2005) --Sig_/2Mc/Vsf3qYIAzAkf_6hhhsI Content-Type: application/pgp-signature; name=signature.asc Content-Disposition: attachment; filename=signature.asc -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v2.0.14 (GNU/Linux) iEYEARECAAYFAku4ZP4ACgkQxPWMzpKk6kMhmwCgvwvQkwYOc6NHX/8keifpkHIt wmEAnjN+jYl9r755t3AEPsHCeH6Nt+us =TBoB -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- --Sig_/2Mc/Vsf3qYIAzAkf_6hhhsI--