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It's been three months since the last Good Book Newsletter, time to
update. Things continue to look better and better on the SlackBook
Project. Currently the vast majority of the chapters are in a finished
or near finished state.

15 chapters are in Complete or Reasonably Complete state (this should
arguably be 16, but I'm not yet comfortable putting chapter 18 into
Reasonably Complete stage until I look over Slackware's current
handling of tagfiles).

Specifics
=========
Chapter 6- Still nowhere on this section, though fuzzbawl in
##slackware on irc.freenode.net has offered to do some work on this.

Chapter 14- Simon Williams has offered to start back work on this
chapter.

Chapter 18- In Progress. I've got this chapter pretty much complete,
but I'm not satisfied with the dialogue on tagfiles. This isn't
something I've worked on much, so I'm a little flakey on it and want to
make sure it's _right_ before I give it my stamp of approval.

Chapter 19- Still nothing here. Will likely drop BigSlack entirely as
that's no longer included in anything, and focus entirely on ZipSlack.

Chapter 20- Two people (Dennis Kibbe and Paul Williams) have
independantly offered to work on this chapter. I've pointed them
towards each other and hopefully we'll see something from them soon.

My next priority is on chapter 19, then 6. After that I'll finish
chapter 12 if nothing has been done, and if we see no progress in
chapter 20, I'll likely drop that chapter at that point.

Changelog
=========
2005-02-16
- - Finished discussion of Makepkg and explodepkg in chapter 18.
Mentioned SlackBuild scripts as well.
- - Discussed tagfiles briefly. I'm a little weak on this so I'm
not yet going to set this chapter to "Reasonably Complete".

2005-02-07
- - Set Chapters 15 and 17 to Complete. Haven't received any bug reports
for them. :^) A couple of people have volunteered to work on the
printing chapter. Hopefully I'll have more info on that within a
short time.

2005-02-01
- - Chapter 15 is in Reasonably Complete status now. Finished discussion
of tar and zip. Chapter 18 should start up soon. I'm going to likely
wait to continue work on it for almost a week as I have a vacation
coming up and will be offline for some time. If I don't reply to your
e-mails in a timely fashion I hope you'll understand. :^)
- - I'm full of it. I've begun work on Chapter 18. Sue me.
- - Fixed TOC in Chapter 15.

2005-01-26
- - Begun work onf Chapter 15. This shouldn't take too long.

2005-01-20
- - Corrected numerous errors such as typos, broken links, and other
errata pointed out by Sally Welch

2005-01-12
- - Corrected omission of the "L" disk series in
chapter3-requirements.html
Thanks to Charlie Law for the pointer.

2005-01-01
Happy New Year!
- - Chapter 17 set to "Reasonably Complete"

2004-12-31
Just in time for New Year's! This should be the last Changelog entry
beginning with 2004. :^)
- - Set chapters 5, 13, and 16 to complete. Don't see any reason besides
minor editorial work to continue with them as reasonably complete.

2004-12-03
- - Long time since the last update. The Good Book hasn't been as big a
priority for me as SlackSec right now.
- - Merged in Keith Keller's write-up on wireless networking. Thanks
Keith!

2004-11-16
- - Wow! 9 days since the last update. I've gotta get on the ball! :^)
- - Received thorough write ups on emacs from Joost Kremers and wifi
networking from Keith Keller. Will be putting these in place soon.
Thanks guys.
- - Updated index.html to reflect these changes.

- --
It is better to hear the rebuke of the wise,
Than for a man to hear the song of fools.
Ecclesiastes 7:5
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_.-In alt.os.linux.slackware, +Alan Hicks+ wrote the following -._
>
> Changelog

I know that this work is mostly tech in nature but has their been any
thought on putting together an Appendix on the philosophy of
Slackware?

Some things like why slack uses BSD style rc scripts insead of sysv is
something that we all know but what about those things that get
brought up frequently in here like "why doesn't pkgtool have
dependancy checking" and the like could be a helpful addition ot the
book.

- --
.-')) asciipr0n.com/fp ('-. | It's a damn poor mind that
' ..- .:" ) ( ":. -.. ' | can only think of one way to
((,,_;'.;' UIN=66618055 ';. ';_,,)) | spell a word.
((_.YIM=Faux_Pseudo :._)) | - Andrew Jackson
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In alt.os.linux.slackware, Faux_Pseudo dared to utter,
> I know that this work is mostly tech in nature but has their been any
> thought on putting together an Appendix on the philosophy of
> Slackware?

That thought has never crossed my mind, but is intriguing
none-the-less.

> Some things like why slack uses BSD style rc scripts insead of sysv is
> something that we all know but what about those things that get
> brought up frequently in here like "why doesn't pkgtool have
> dependancy checking" and the like could be a helpful addition ot the
> book.

I agree, though whether it'll get added or not will depend on my desire
to finish the project. :^) After the other chapter are complete with
the exception of chapter 20, I'll decide what to do about philosophy.

- --
It is better to hear the rebuke of the wise,
Than for a man to hear the song of fools.
Ecclesiastes 7:5
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"Faux_Pseudo" typed:
> Some things like why slack uses BSD style rc scripts insead of sysv is
> something that we all know but what about those things that get
> brought up frequently in here like "why doesn't pkgtool have
> dependancy checking" and the like could be a helpful addition ot the
> book.

Spot on, Faux. I've been looking for that kinda' information myself.

--
Ayaz Ahmed Khan

What would you say about starting one more project called, say,
The SlackWorld. I mean a kind of a (bi-)weekly journal containing at
least two topics that are not covered by other Slackware-related
sites/resources: (i) a review of new packages in the -current tree, and
(ii) a collection of general interest postings at AOLS (that do not
fall in the category of FAQs), e.g., like this one:
http://groups-beta.google.com/group/...99c4a34ee29399
I am ready to take part in such a project but not ready to maintain
it alone since (i) this is a huge work, (ii) I am not qualified enough
to review new packages.

--
Mikhail

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In alt.os.linux.slackware, Mikhail Zotov dared to utter,
> What would you say about starting one more project called, say,
> The SlackWorld. I mean a kind of a (bi-)weekly journal containing at
> least two topics that are not covered by other Slackware-related
> sites/resources:

I think this is an excellent idea, but should likely be a monthly
issue. I'm willing to throw my hat in the ring.

- --
It is better to hear the rebuke of the wise,
Than for a man to hear the song of fools.
Ecclesiastes 7:5
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+Alan Hicks+ wrote on Thursday 17 February 2005 20:49:
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>
> In alt.os.linux.slackware, Mikhail Zotov dared to utter,
>> What would you say about starting one more project called, say,
>> The SlackWorld. I mean a kind of a (bi-)weekly journal containing at
>> least two topics that are not covered by other Slackware-related
>> sites/resources:
>
> I think this is an excellent idea, but should likely be a monthly
> issue. I'm willing to throw my hat in the ring.

Great. :-)
I'll write you by e-mail tomorrow if you don't mind so that we can
discuss the project.

--
Mikhail

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In alt.os.linux.slackware, Mikhail Zotov dared to utter,
> Great. :-)
> I'll write you by e-mail tomorrow if you don't mind so that we can
> discuss the project.

Alright. Personally I think a once-a-month newsletter posted to a
mailing list is the way to go, somewhat like Bruce Scheier's CRYTO-GRAM
newsletter. Can talk about the latest changes in -current, security
issues people need to be aware of, latest words of wisdom from
Slack gurus, and maybe a features piece or two once a month about a
particular piece of software including in Slackware (like gnupg) or
general computer science (like encrytion).

- --
It is better to hear the rebuke of the wise,
Than for a man to hear the song of fools.
Ecclesiastes 7:5
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In alt.os.linux.slackware, +Alan Hicks+ dared to utter,
> 15 chapters are in Complete or Reasonably Complete state (this should
> arguably be 16, but I'm not yet comfortable putting chapter 18 into
> Reasonably Complete stage until I look over Slackware's current
> handling of tagfiles).

Scratch that. We've got another update big enough to list! Only three
chapters are now listed as "Reasonably Complete" and one is listed "In
Progress". Yes, that's right... _no_ chapters are empty (save of
course the printing chapter that's likely to be dropped). Moreover,
this Hicks boy has been on a tear. Chapter 6 (The X Window System) is
Reasonably Complete as is Chapter 19 (ZipSlack) and Chapter 18
(Slackware Package Management). In fact, the only chapter not in some
complete status is chapter 12 (Security), a new addition to the Good
Book. This of course is my next priority.

Now, I _really_ need some pier review on this process ASAP so I can
start getting rid of little errors in both my typing ability and my
technical abilities. :^)

I think I deserve a beer.

- --
It is better to hear the rebuke of the wise,
Than for a man to hear the song of fools.
Ecclesiastes 7:5
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+Alan Hicks+ wrote:
> Now, I _really_ need some pier review on this process ASAP so I can
> start getting rid of little errors in both my typing ability and my
> technical abilities. :^)

i'd be happy to go through any number of chapters you think need
proofreading. just let me know which ones you want me to go through. (don't
hesitate to say "all".) though i must say that i would mainly be looking at
writing style and typos etc. i doubt my technical knowledge is enough to
spot errors or omissions in yours. ;-)

> I think I deserve a beer.

i think you do to.

--
Joost Kremers joostkremers@yahoo.com
Selbst in die Unterwelt dringt durch Spalten Licht
EN:SiS(9)