[mythtv-users] constant flames against people that are new tothelist - can't we all be adults here?

[Jarod C. Wilson]

On Friday, Oct 3, 2003, at 12:02 US/Pacific, Tim Harvey wrote:

>> Perhaps adding a google-esque search capability to the docs page would
>> help, since many people's manual searches aren't so hot... Dunno how
>> hard that would be to add. One could always simply post the docs in
>> their entirety on the mailing list, and let gossamer handle the
>> searching (not sure if there is a message length limit).
>
> I think posting the docs to the list is just redundant.  Having a
> google-esque search to the docs would definitely help.  How do we make
> it happen?

I like Lorrin's idea. Simply add a google submit box with the 'search 
only mythtv.org' directive. Now, to get that in place...

> I beat my head against the wall but finally got it
> working without posting any questions.

I like to hear that! (the part about getting it working without posting 
anything :)

> For me, using the rpm's actually
> screwed me up in a way.  I had no problems using AT's rpms to get a 
> 0.11
> system up an running... absolutely no problems and it only took an hour
> or two.  But, when I realized I wanted to get involved and tried to
> switch over to using CVS I got really hosed up.  I ended up completely
> reinstalling as I'm just not a linux guru.  AT's rpms tend to put 
> things
> in different places than the Makefiles generated from the CVS versions.
> This was just my experience.

Yes, that's standard with all rpms versus source-based, locally 
compiled installs. Just about any package installed from rpm goes into 
/usr/bin, /usr/sbin, etc., while locally compiled software goes into 
/usr/local/bin, /usr/local/sbin, etc.

All that should have been necessary was to remove the MythTV rpms, then 
install from CVS source, or build your own rpms from the CVS source and 
upgrade that way.

> Once I got things running though, I immediately got confused on 'how to
> use MythTV'.  I really think we should split up the documents

This has been discussed before. The biggest problem is getting people 
to actually maintain all the different elements...

> and have a
> 'RPM based Installation Guide' (such as your guide)

But not all distros use rpm, or work with the rpms that are out there. 
This is another issue. The only install method supported across all 
distros (though with variation in just about all of them) is 
source-based. The rpms aren't official MythTV rpms, and thus aren't 
officially supported, so the documentation covering their use isn't 
official either. Same with the Debian debs and Gentoo emerge packages.

The biggest problem is getting someone to maintain everything. If 
there's a significant change made, then changes are necessary across 
multiple documents, and who knows how many people will actually keep up 
with things. You wind up with various bodies of documentation that are 
at very different stages of completeness, accuracy and up-to-dateness. 
That's a pretty big problem for a project like this that is rapidly 
evolving.

> a 'CVS based
> Installation Guide' (pretty much what the current documentation is)

More accurately, a source-based install guide. A guide specifically for 
CVS is less than desirable, because you really don't want folks that 
don't really know what they're doing installing CVS. Those that are 
capable of installing from CVS can figure it out from the source-based 
install guide.

> a
> 'Frequently Asked Questions' (the current docs take a stab at this with
> Section 21, but its lacking a lot of faq's from the list)

Either further expanding that section, or perhaps branching it off 
wouldn't hurt.

> and a
> 'UserGuide' (which I haven't seen anything close to yet).

Definitely something I'd like to see.

> In addition I really think something should be done about this
> mythtv-users mailing list as the traffic it gets is so high.  I commend
> all of you for apparently reading all of it...

Oh, I don't. I quickly scan the subject lines and delete anything I 
don't think looks to be of any interest.

> personally I'm on the
> verge of unsubscribing to myth-users because I can't read all the
> threads and still get my real work done.

I do find myself spending quite a bit of time on it though...

> I would rather see key
> developers working on the project rather than spending hours a day
> reading through the list.  Perhaps I'm highly inefficient at reading 
> the
> list?

Dunno. I probably am too.

> I'm using Outlook (yuck!) and its threaded capability pretty much
> sucks, but I ran into problems with some of the obvious alternatives as
> well (I can't get Mozilla to inline attachments from the commit list,
> and I can't really migrate my mail-reading platform to Linux and use
> Evolution... wish it was avail for Windows).

Can't help ya there. I use a Mac (which CAN run Evo, though I use Apple 
Mail).

--Jarod

-- 
Jarod C. Wilson, RHCE

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