MythTV HowTo (was: Re: [mythtv-users] Re: MythTV : Little Sleep, Lots Of Reading... | Failed.)

[Ray Olszewski]

At 10:52 AM 6/9/2003 -0400, Isaac Richards wrote:
[...]
>Also, I would very much prefer that you submit patches to the existing 
>docs to
>Robert, instead of writing your own.

The best way to encourage this approach would be to get Robert to accept 
more "patches". His unwillingness to add the information that recent 
versions of LIRC changed the name of the "rc" program to "irsend" (see his 
response to me on this list a few days ago) is a handy illustration of the 
problem.

His response to me was *correct* in that the HowTo discusses a specific 
version or LIRC, and this name change appears in a newer version. But while 
correct,  the response is not *helpful* to Debian-Sid users ... since the 
current version of LIRC in Debian-Sid is that newer version. A 
Debian-Sid-specific complement to the HowTo is needed to address details 
that Robert knows about but specifically declines to add to the HowTo (this 
is just one example; my past postings here have identified many others).

In general, rigidity with respect to adding distro-specific information 
into the HowTo is what prompts people to write distro-specific supplements 
to the HowTo. Not being a Red Hat user, I do not know the extent to which 
Jared's notes address these kinds of distro-specific questions that Robert 
is reluctant to add to the HowTo ... but do know that last week's exchanges 
have completed the process of discouraging me from offering any more 
suggestions about or updates to the "official" HowTo.

Isaac, the "official" HowTo can quite reasonably be limited to information 
about how to install Myth from "official" sources (including getting other 
required software from their "official" sources rather than distro 
packages). In that case, you should expect, even desire, to see 
distro-specific supplements, particularly ones geared to the idiosyncracies 
of prepackaged versions for the distros. (Another example would be the 
Debian-Sid packages moving ./setup to /usr/bin/mythtv-setup .) I even 
recall a posting, by you or Robert (I forget which) that explicitly said 
that documentation for distro-specific pre-packages of Myth should be the 
responsibility of the packager, not Myth.

Or the "offficial" HowTo can attempt to be inclusive, providing as much 
distro-specific info as Robert can get from those of us who install to the 
various distros and report our problems and solutions or workarounds.

It can't simultaneously be both of these things. Right now, it appears to 
be a mix of the two, with the cutoff set by ... well, I really don't really 
understand what the cutoff criteria are for inclusion. That may be part of 
my problem with the current approach.

In any case, until it becomes easier to get distro-specific information 
added to the HowTo, you should expect to see distro-specific documents 
continue to turn up.