rpm experiences [was: Backing up whole system]

[Gene Heskett]

On Sunday 10 May 2009, Rahul Sundaram wrote:
>On 05/10/2009 10:24 PM, Gene Heskett wrote:
>>> https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/How_to_create_an_RPM_package
>>>
>>> Rahul
>>
>> Which, if printed, is still 29 pages, Rahul.
>
>Number of pages is a very meaningless metric to decide the scope of
>useful documentation. I have worked as a technical writer and
>determining the usefulness or conciseness of a document is a much harder
>task than simply counting the number of pages. You can shorten the
>number by reducing the size of the font. Would that make it more
>concise, suddenly?
>
>Note that above page can be shortened by excluding information or adding
>more references but it all depends on the audience.
>
>> Clear and Concise writing seems to be a lost art.  There has been 10x more
>> pages written on rpm now, than Kernigan & Ritchie put in the original C
>> book, but that book, and its successor (I have both) can be used for a
>> demo of how to write clear, concise docs.
>
>K&R C book is reference material. Hardly a beginner introduction. Ask
>someone who has actually spend time building both RPM and DEB packages,
>which one has been easier and why. Finding a random PDF online and
>blaming the tool is hardly the sensible thing to do.  Simplicity is not
>the same as simple.
>
>Building software is inherently a complex task. Tools can only help so
>far. RPM is only a small part of it. Eventually you will have to learn
>different source code management tools (earlier just cvs. now add git,
>mercurial and more), compiler and other core utilities (sed, awk, perl
>...), build automation tools (again, these keep increasing - autotools,
>cmake and so on), build system tools and so on. After years, one will
>barely have scratched the surface of the full scope of these.
>
>Rahul

And at my age, I don't have the years left it would take to absorb all that 
and do it well.  Not excusing myself, but them are the facts.

-- 
Cheers, Gene
"There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty:
 soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order."
-Ed Howdershelt (Author)
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