Configure.help i18n system
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I wonder if the Configure.help text should not possibly be even _more_ distributed than just splitting it up into different files. It might very �well be acceptable to actually distribute it over the net (and have just a mapping of config options into www-addresses or something).
I think this is a bad idea.
(i) The kernel has high visibility, and work on the kernel [even if only on the Documentation subdirectory] has high "prestige". As a consequence, parts of the kernel tree are kept much better up-to-date than documentation found elsewhere.
(I have been trying for years to find people willing to do something to the very outdated ioctl_list.2 or proc.5 or bootparam.7.)
When distributed, very quickly Configure.help would be outdated, and of very uneven format and quality.
(ii) So far, building a kernel involved getting a single tarball. If the help for over a thousand configuration options is found a hundred different places on the net, of which five are currently unreachable, things get really cumbersome.
The current system is not so bad.
Andries
[email protected] <[email protected]> ecrit :
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Quoted 4 lines
(i) The kernel has high visibility, and work on the kernel [even if only on the Documentation subdirectory] has high "prestige". As a consequence, parts of the kernel tree are kept much better up-to-date than documentation found elsewhere.
Why would quality be lowered if instead of trying and push a Configure.help patch to an already busy Linus, one should notify the maintainer ? Simply because it doesn't gain the same "prestige" to the author ? *big pain*
I don't forget your proc.5/bootparam.7 argument but it's not the same point imho.
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(ii) So far, building a kernel involved getting a single tarball. If the help for over a thousand configuration options is found a hundred different places on the net, of which five are currently unreachable, things get really cumbersome.
Not everybody reads a thousand configuration options entry. If I want a kernel tailored for a specific machine, I keep a .config somewhere, make oldconfig and so on. I don't read a Configure.help entry that hasn't changed for months. Documentation/Changes is enough. If I want to build the usual "does everything compile?" kernel, the Configure.help entry isn't that needed.
If it's the first time I compile a kernel, $DISTRIBUTION could include the extra package somewhere. Outdated ? We aren't talking about people working with testing versions thus I doubt it's really a problem.
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The current system is not so bad.
Yes. However, the point of "Configure.help doesn't belong to core" makes sense (as long as it doesn't prevent compile).
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Ueimor