From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Neil Jerram Newsgroups: gmane.lisp.guile.devel Subject: Re: [Guile-commits] GNU Guile branch, wip-manual-2, updated. release_1-9-9-85-g0a864be Date: Mon, 12 Apr 2010 01:15:16 +0100 Message-ID: <87iq7xpluz.fsf@ossau.uklinux.net> References: <87tyrhbn13.fsf@gnu.org> NNTP-Posting-Host: lo.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=gb2312 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable X-Trace: dough.gmane.org 1271031384 27920 80.91.229.12 (12 Apr 2010 00:16:24 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@dough.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Mon, 12 Apr 2010 00:16:24 +0000 (UTC) Cc: guile-devel@gnu.org To: ludo@gnu.org (Ludovic =?iso-8859-1?Q?Court=E8s?=) Original-X-From: guile-devel-bounces+guile-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Mon Apr 12 02:16:23 2010 Return-path: Envelope-to: guile-devel@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([199.232.76.165]) by lo.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1O17K8-0003wI-IK for guile-devel@m.gmane.org; Mon, 12 Apr 2010 02:16:20 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1]:55117 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1O17K7-0007ZF-My for guile-devel@m.gmane.org; Sun, 11 Apr 2010 20:16:19 -0400 Original-Received: from mailman by lists.gnu.org with tmda-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1O17K4-0007Z2-Vl for guile-devel@gnu.org; Sun, 11 Apr 2010 20:16:17 -0400 Original-Received: from [140.186.70.92] (port=40766 helo=eggs.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1O17K1-0007Yq-4t for guile-devel@gnu.org; Sun, 11 Apr 2010 20:16:14 -0400 Original-Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1O17Jz-0004lg-47 for guile-devel@gnu.org; Sun, 11 Apr 2010 20:16:13 -0400 Original-Received: from mail3.uklinux.net ([80.84.72.33]:33850) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1O17Jy-0004ij-St; Sun, 11 Apr 2010 20:16:11 -0400 Original-Received: from arudy (host86-182-154-126.range86-182.btcentralplus.com [86.182.154.126]) by mail3.uklinux.net (Postfix) with ESMTP id 767BD1F6A0E; Mon, 12 Apr 2010 01:15:33 +0100 (BST) Original-Received: from arudy (arudy [127.0.0.1]) by arudy (Postfix) with ESMTP id EA3FA38026; Mon, 12 Apr 2010 01:15:17 +0100 (BST) In-Reply-To: <87tyrhbn13.fsf@gnu.org> ("Ludovic =?iso-8859-1?Q?Court=E8s?= =?iso-8859-1?Q?=22's?= message of "Mon, 12 Apr 2010 01:13:44 +0200") User-Agent: Gnus/5.13 (Gnus v5.13) Emacs/23.1 (gnu/linux) X-detected-operating-system: by eggs.gnu.org: GNU/Linux 2.4-2.6 X-BeenThere: guile-devel@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: "Developers list for Guile, the GNU extensibility library" List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Original-Sender: guile-devel-bounces+guile-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Errors-To: guile-devel-bounces+guile-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.lisp.guile.devel:10201 Archived-At: ludo@gnu.org (Ludovic Court=A8=A8s) writes: > Hi Neil, Hi Ludo! > "Neil Jerram" writes: > >> Improvements to Introduction chapter >>=20=20=20=20=20 >> * doc/ref/intro.texi (Introduction): Change "some" to "the". >> (Guile and Scheme): "multithreading" -> "multithreaded". >> (Combining with C): Mention "libguile" as library name. >> (Guile and the GNU Project): New text. >> (Interactive Programming): New text. >> (Supporting Multiple Languages): New text, reflecting currently >> supported languages. >> (Obtaining and Installing Guile): Use @var for version placeholder. >> Remove mention of separate tutorial. > > FWIW I really like =A1=B0Guile and the GNU Project=A1=B1 and =A1=B0Intera= ctive > Programming=A1=B1. I think they concisely convey the GNU vision to provi= de > software that=A1=AFs not only released under a free software license (the > legal aspect of freedom) but is also liberating and empowering (the > technical aspect). Hey, thanks! Your feedback is very much appreciated. I'm not sure if I raised it on the list, but for a while I was worried about the manual being so big, and I wasn't sure about how to form its contents into a coherent narrative - or about the extent to which that matters. My eventual conclusion from that was that what's really important is to have a good Introduction chapter. If the Introduction does a good enough job of laying out the Big Picture, I think that effectively _creates_ the narrative for the whole manual, and the job for the rest of the manual is simplified to making sure that it is complete and technically correct (and has pleasant smaller-scale structure, of course). Hence, that's what I've been focussing on recently in the wip-manual-2 branch. I'm sure I'm still not getting everything perfect, though, so please do keep an occasional eye on that branch, and let me know if you have any developing concerns. I will merge from master regularly so as not to miss stuff that's added there, and to avoid building up a conflict backlog. Then, hopefully, at a point in the not too distant future, the manual in wip-manual-2 will be ready for pulling back into master, and publishing. The trouble is, though, when the ground keeps shifting under one's feet. Now that multiple language support is really starting to take off, last night I was thinking that the first sentence "Guile is an implementation of the Scheme programming language." is probably not the right first sentence any more... > Thanks, > Ludo=A1=AF (looking forward to having this nice manual on his bookshelf. = :-)) Me too, and that reminds me that I need to get in touch with Brian to discuss a new realistic schedule. Thanks again, Neil