Re: [PATCH 0/4] add in-tree 9pfs developers documentation

[Christian Schoenebeck]

On Mittwoch, 7. April 2021 09:32:30 CEST Greg Kurz wrote:
> On Tue, 06 Apr 2021 14:27:41 +0200
> 
> Christian Schoenebeck <qemu_oss@crudebyte.com> wrote:
> > On Dienstag, 23. März 2021 20:40:20 CEST Christian Schoenebeck wrote:
> > > The original source for the QEMU 9p developers documentation is:
> > >   https://wiki.qemu.org/Documentation/9p
> > > 
> > > This patch set adds it as in-tree .rst file along with its pictures to
> > > the
> > > QEMU source tree. The 9p.rst file has been auto generated by 'pandoc'.
> > > 
> > > Preview of generated 9p.rst file with pictures:
> > > 
> > > 
> > > https://github.com/cschoenebeck/qemu/blob/bbc74655d54f2fa9c3eabf485e87f9
> > > 952
> > > 53b8cfd/docs/devel/9p.rst
> > > 
> > > Picture binary files (omitted as binary blobs from patch 2):
> > > 
> > > 
> > > https://github.com/cschoenebeck/qemu/tree/bbc74655d54f2fa9c3eabf485e87f9
> > > 952
> > > 53b8cfd/docs/devel/img
> > > 
> > > Or simply access my '9p.experimental' branch on github.
> > > 
> > > I have no idea if that fits into the current sphinx/meson concept in
> > > this
> > > form and way. I hope either Peter or Paolo might tell.
> > > 
> > > The individual patches could also be squashed, I kept them split for now
> > > to
> > > show what pandoc actually did and what I manually adjusted afterwards.
> > > 
> > > Christian Schoenebeck (4):
> > >   docs/devel: add 9p.rst
> > >   docs/devel: add directory for pictures
> > >   docs/devel/9p: fix references to pictures
> > >   MAINTAINERS: add responsibility for docs/devel/9p.rst
> > 
> > Ping
> > 
> > Anyone? On doubt I just leave the 9p developer docs solely on the wiki
> > site.
> Hi Christian,
> 
> Sorry for the delay... well, it is probably handy to have some
> in-tree documentation. This being said I can't really tell if
> it makes sense to have an exact copy of the wiki... or if this
> should simply replace the wiki.

The idea was to keep the wiki page as primary copy and only sync the in-tree 
.rst file by auto conversion tool (e.g. pandoc) once in a while. Because it is 
easier, quicker and more convenient to quickly change docs by wiki IMO.

> Also, do we want to host the png files ? It seems that other
> in-tree documentation rather relies on ASCII-art, which
> provides a more terminal-friendly experience.

Right, that's a matter of taste / opinion. I assume a small minority of people 
want to be able to view illustrations from a text terminal nowadays, and that 
the vast majority rather prefers a graphical representation. The lack of color 
alone would already be too counter intuitive in my opinion, and automatic 
ascii art conversion tools never worked for me well enough.

Given the fact that we can only spend small times slices on 9p, I would like 
to avoid maintaining 2 completely separate documentation versions manually.

So personally I would suggest, if either auto conversion and/or images is not 
appropriate for an in-tree version, to just keep the wiki page for now. 

> 
> Cheers,
> 
> --
> Greg
> 
> > >  MAINTAINERS                          |   1 +
> > >  docs/devel/9p.rst                    | 544 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++
> > >  docs/devel/img/9pfs_control_flow.png | Bin 0 -> 156560 bytes
> > >  docs/devel/img/9pfs_topology.png     | Bin 0 -> 51529 bytes
> > >  docs/devel/img/Coroutines_stacks.png | Bin 0 -> 87204 bytes
> > >  5 files changed, 545 insertions(+)
> > >  create mode 100644 docs/devel/9p.rst
> > >  create mode 100644 docs/devel/img/9pfs_control_flow.png
> > >  create mode 100644 docs/devel/img/9pfs_topology.png
> > >  create mode 100644 docs/devel/img/Coroutines_stacks.png
> > 
> > Best regards,
> > Christian Schoenebeck