Re: TFM - a basic outline (longish)

Colin Panisset (Colin.Panisset@nospam.nms.otc.com.au)
Wed, 9 Nov 1994 17:09:39 +1100 (EST)

Once upon a time, Thomas James Magill was heard to say:

}
} 1. A new cover design. With the forthcoming *Progsoc logo*. And I think it
} should be blue. But not so blue that you can't see the black.

We've had a blue one. Can we have burgundy, or yellow, or orange, or
pink, or spotted instead?

} 2. Part the First -> The Basics
}
} /This part is intended to
} (a) give newbies a starting point apart from the UNIX workshop; and
} (b) make SoCS happy and give them something to give to people who
} want a reference type manual.
}
} * Vi/Ex - a ? Guide Dennis Cook ? Is this section OK ?

It's good. Dennis changed it every so often, and Leroy hated it, but
that's more a personal thing.

} * .cshrc Chris Fraser
} * Big Modem Chapter Ryan This may need updating
}
} /I think that these bits need to be included in a beginners section if
} if we are going to give 'x' copies to SoCS.

How about quick reviews of different editors? How-to-compile (not
how-to-write-programs), and how-to-print (including why you shouldn't
print binaries, or the entirety of /usr/dict/words in banner format.)

} 3. Part the Second -> The Internet Section
}
} /Section Two is intended to be organised around the more *fun* things the
} internet provides (as opposed to todays weather). The order of the sections
} is not set.
}
} * ftp Colinge

I wasn't happy with this bit, and I wanna rewrite it.

} * rlogin /telnet Chris F Include a telnet section?

Yeah, include it. telnet's jolly useful, what?

} * email Colinge This could all go on 1 page

Yeah. And be better written, too. Again, I'll redo it if people want.

} New-Official-View on IRC on
} ftoomsh

Whatever it was.

} * twm Ryan (1)

A comparison of window managers (customisability, ease-of-use, resource
hunger, etc.); twm, vtwm, tvtwm, fvwm, olwm, olvwm, mwm, gwm, blahwm,
wibblewm, splot-titty-norkabungawm.

} * shell programming Chris F (1)
}
} /(1) : personally (when I read these bits) I though they were pretty muddled
} and overlapping and fairly badly organised - but that could have just
} been me. Anyone else want to comment?
}
} * bin/sh programming Chris Keane

They could be consolidated.

} 6. Part the Fifth -> A progsoc guide to Programming
}
} /In previous versions this has contained bits on eiffel, pascal, C, miranda
} and a picture for COBOL (I vote we keep this - it always make *me* laugh).
} I believe that it was Grants idea to also include sections on
} (a) Perl

A small section. Perhaps an introduction, a sort of it-exists section.
People will tend to gravitate towards perl if they can use it, but
others find it a write-only language.

} (b) TeX

Wheee!

} and I thought a small, highly plagarised version on HTML would be nice

It doesn't need to be big. HTML is simple.

} Even though on-line docs exist (everywhere) I think we should do our
} own *short* paper version - maybe a Progsoc suggested homepage guide?

How to set it up (presumably we're running a server that supports the
~/public_html directory concept).

-- Colin.