Re: politicaly-correct patch (was: Re: GNU/Hurd section in webpages)

[Robert Millan]

On Thu, Oct 16, 2003 at 10:46:01AM +0200, Alfred M. Szmidt wrote:
>    Patch instructions:
> 
>      mv install.html hurd-install.html
>      cp hurd-install.html gnu-install.html
> 
> I don't particularly like this, we would end up with two "special"
> files that stand out.  I.e. what does download.html refer to? GNU/Hurd
> or the Hurd?  I would suggest that we either leave the Hurd related
> files as they are (no prefix), and for the new section just tag on
> gnu- or whatever.  Or do it the other way around, rename all Hurd
> related files to have a hurd- prefix and let GNU/Hurd related items
> have no prefix.  I don't really have an preference on this, but I'm
> leaning to the former since its far less work.

Since this is the Hurd website (whereas GNU's is www.gnu.org), it makes sense
for me to assume the Hurd is implicit and only add prefixes for other things.
Then we don't have to rename things like download.html

>    +There's no official stable release of the GNU system yet. The latest 
> unstable
>    +release is <A HREF="/software/hurd/hurd-flash15">GNU 0.2</A>. Nowadays, 
> that
>    +release is completely obsolete, and even binary incompatible with current
>    +GNU/Hurd distributions.
> 
> I don't particularly like this paragraph since it sounds negative
> ("There was an release, but it sucks, etc" kind of thing).  But the
> ideas I tried to come up with sounded worse.  Could you maybe come up
> something that makes this sound a bit more positive maybe?

I'm not particularly good at making dirty things look nice, but I can try.

How about instead of explaining why 0.2 sucks, explain why recent versions
don't suck. E.g:
   "Nowadays that release is obsolete and doesn't have the new features and
    improvements of recent GNU-based distributions. It is also binary
    incompatible with recent Glibc versions, which would make upgrading a
    non-trivial task."

> Oh, a small nitpick, sentences end with a period and _two_ spaces, not
> one space.  That is, we write "Foo.  Bar." instead of "Foo. Bar.".

Ok.

>    +Refer to the <A HREF="/software/hurd/download.html">Source Code</A> 
> section
>    +for details on Hurd sources availability.
>    +<HR>
> 
> Maybe something along these lines instead, so that it flows with the
> previous paragraph:
> 
>  But if you would like to help and contribute changes to the Hurd (or
>  related projects) then please visit the `Source Code' section for
>  details on how to download the source code for the Hurd.

Fine. Actualy I didn't know what to put in here.

> I guess thats all I have to say, since the rest of the files look OK.

I'll send a new patch.

-- 
Robert Millan

"[..] but the delight and pride of Aule is in the deed of making, and in the
thing made, and neither in possession nor in his own mastery; wherefore he
gives and hoards not, and is free from care, passing ever on to some new work."

 -- J.R.R.T, Ainulindale (Silmarillion)