This is the mail archive of the cygwin-talk mailing list for the cygwin project.


Index Nav: [Date Index] [Subject Index] [Author Index] [Thread Index]
Message Nav: [Date Prev] [Date Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next]
Other format: [Raw text]

Re: Cygwin Book?


On Mon, Oct 15, 2007 at 12:04:03PM -0600, Warren Young wrote:
> Christopher Faylor wrote:
>> It seems like more and more people are using Cygwin because they want a
>> package that is part of the distribution.  We get too many ignorant
>> questions for me to think that many of these people are at all familiar
>> with *IX systems.
>
> Yeah, so Chapter 2 (or Appendix B) can be something on the overall 
> philosophy of *ix and how to use the most common tools.
>
> My main point is that there's no need for The Unix System Administration 
> Handbook, Cygwin Edition.  If someone wants to learn *ix in general, there 
> are plenty of very good books for that, including the purple book.  Cygwin 
> is close enough to a "real" *ix that the difference generally doesn't 
> matter to a newbie.  This wheel doesn't need to be reinvented.
>
>> Whenever I think about doing that, I always think about how many
>> problems people have with the concept of setup.exe and then I start
>> thinking that we should redesign the GUI and provide a command-line
>> utility.
>
> That'd be my vote.  I don't start threads about it because I know the 
> correct reply is SHTDI, and I'm capable of Doing It, so I can't get out of 
> it on an incompetence plea.  :)
>
>> Then I get discouraged and just fire up Unreal Tournament 2004
>> to forget about things.
>
> Back in the day, there was a DOOM mod for Linux system administration. 
> Killing processes was quite natural, for instance.
>
> Maybe we can mod one of the Quake engines to install Cygwin.  As the 
> packages download and install, new rooms are added.  The doors open and 
> each README is represented by a monster that comes out, which can't be 
> killed until you pop into console mode and page through it.  When the 
> install process completes, the boss monster, Bill Gates, is imprisoned at 
> the center of the complex to do slave labor on an exercise wheel that turns 
> the wheels that keep the complex running.

LOLAWIMC

(LOL At Work In My Cubicle)

> And yes, I'm aware that the correct reply to all this is also SHTDI, and 
> I'm halfway to volunteering.  The only thing holding me back is that I'm 
> not really a Cygwin power user.  There's a lot about it that I really don't 
> understand, even after using it since B16 or so.  Generally it Just Works 
> for my limited purposes, so I don't have much call to dig deep into it.
>
> What I do know is technical writing, DocBook, and the Unix Way.

In this case, the principle might just be "SHTSI" (Someone Has To Start
It).  If I had a framework to work with I might be interested in adding
to it from time to time.

cgf


Index Nav: [Date Index] [Subject Index] [Author Index] [Thread Index]
Message Nav: [Date Prev] [Date Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next]