console.perms

[Paul W. Frields]

On Fri, 2007-12-14 at 14:58 -0700, Karl Larsen wrote:
> I used the info in info console.perms and from several other sources 
> to teach me how to write a file that changes /dev/ttyS0 ownership from 
> root to me when I am on the console. As it happens this is the devise in 
> Fedora that lets you use a serial port which in windows talk is Com1.
> 
>     The info console.perms is written by Michael K. Johnson 
> <johnsonm at redhat.com> and I suspect he wrote the software. Alas what he 
> wrote is real bad. It tells him what it does but it was way over my 
> head. After reading a lot of other things I figured out how to use this 
> software and it did work. But it took a whole day.
> 
>     I would like to re-write this console-perm man page from the pov of 
> a user rather than the writer of the code. This I can do from what I did 
> to make the serial port work.
> 
>     Is this something we do?

I think any quality judgment of that man page is a really subjective
measurement.  For instance, I find it pretty darn informative, but if
you asked me ten years ago, I'd probably argue with myself.  The man
pages use a specific style and tone that is particular to console users
(power users, administrators, and developers), and the information they
convey uses terminology that is somewhat consistent across the whole
set.  I have a feeling that trying to change that tone for one
particular man page may not be a worthwhile effort.

What I'd suggest, instead, is that you do one of the following:

1.  (A little harder, but allows you to participate in this project:)
Follow the steps at http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/DocsProject/Join to
join Fedora get wiki access, and make a tutorial page that explains this
procedure in common user language.  We can look at using that in future
guides as appropriate.

2.  (Easier:)  Get yourself a weblog account at Wordpress.org or any of
the other free blogging sites, and you can post advice on what you
discover there, and share it with the world.

Heck, you could do both if you wanted.

-- 
Paul W. Frields, RHCE                          http://paul.frields.org/
  gpg fingerprint: 3DA6 A0AC 6D58 FEC4 0233  5906 ACDB C937 BD11 3717
           Fedora Project: http://pfrields.fedorapeople.org/
  irc.freenode.net: stickster @ #fedora-docs, #fedora-devel, #fredlug
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: signature.asc
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 189 bytes
Desc: This is a digitally signed message part
URL: <http://listman.redhat.com/archives/fedora-docs-list/attachments/20071214/514b8d7b/attachment.sig>