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* Questions to lists / translations
@ 2001-02-17 09:12 Emmanuel Charpentier <charpent@bacbuc.dyndns.org>
2001-02-23 03:15 ` Re: Questions to lists / translations Neil Conway <nconway@klamath.dyndns.org>
0 siblings, 1 reply; 3+ messages in thread
From: Emmanuel Charpentier @ 2001-02-17 09:12 UTC (permalink / raw)
To: pgsql-general@postgresql.org
Christopher Sawtell wrote:
>
[ ... High number iof questions to the list, although of good level ...
]
> This is a universal problem. It is that once a particular package reaches
> that critical mass it is completely impossible for a small team of
> developers to both help the user community _and_ to develop anything at
> all. I've seen this in both the free and the comercial software worlds.
>
> The commercial world tries to solve it by having "Knowledge Base"
> machinery of some kind or another. My own exp. is that it simply does not
> work.
A good "knowledge base" for PostgreSQL was the mailing list archive.
However, it started having serious problems abck in november, and I
haven't checked it since.
> It might help to install ht://dig so that the online documentation can be
> searched easily. If people think that that would be a good idea then I'd
> be happy to make that contribution.
This engine could also usefully be aimed at the mailing lists archive !
However, a *very* useful feature would be a "human made" indexing. Quite
a load of work ...
It might also be useful to have on the lists people with a good
knowledge of PostgreSQL (at least recent versions) dedicated to
answering these questions. This would ease the load on developpers
proprio dictu.
This way, you would have a kind of a three-tiered help system :
- Search engine on the docs, the FAQs and the lists archive ;
- "Answer" volunteers for hard-but-answerable-from-the-specs questions
;
- Developpers for questions requiring a good knowledge of PostgreSQL
internals.
> Another point is that PostgreSQL is widely used by people who have learnt
> English at school. English is a proper horror of a language & it must be
> extremely difficult to understand the docs. if you didn't learn English on
> your Mother's knee. I learnt French at school, but I would really _hate_
> to have to understand PostgreSQL from French docs. I'm suggesting that now
> that the critical mass of users is nearly upon us that a serious
> translation effort be made. Unfortunately I am not sufficiently able in
> any foreign language to help with translation, but could perhaps attempt
> to make the language of the documentation somewhat easier to understand.
Agreed. But keep in mind that a tralnslation is a *huge* work,
especially in a domain such as computers where most competent people are
used to more-or-less "think in English" about their domain of expertise.
Furthermore, PostgreSQL docs are a hell of a moving target ...
Therefore, such a project needs a *lot* of coordination.
Any thoughs ?
Emmanuel Charpentier
--
Emmanuel Charpentier charpent@bacbuc.dyndns.org
charpent@bacbuc.fdn.fr
^ permalink raw reply [nested|flat] 3+ messages in thread
* Re: Questions to lists / translations
2001-02-17 09:12 Questions to lists / translations Emmanuel Charpentier <charpent@bacbuc.dyndns.org>
@ 2001-02-23 03:15 ` Neil Conway <nconway@klamath.dyndns.org>
2001-02-23 11:49 ` Re: Questions to lists / translations Pete Forman <pete.forman@westerngeco.com>
0 siblings, 1 reply; 3+ messages in thread
From: Neil Conway @ 2001-02-23 03:15 UTC (permalink / raw)
To: pgsql-general@postgresql.org
On Sat, Feb 17, 2001 at 10:12:27AM +0100, Emmanuel Charpentier wrote:
> A good "knowledge base" for PostgreSQL was the mailing list archive.
> However, it started having serious problems abck in november, and I
> haven't checked it since.
They're also archived on GeoCrawler:
http://www.geocrawler.com/lists/3/Databases/
All the lists are there (-general, -novice, -hackers, etc), although I
don't know how far back the archive goes.
HTH,
Neil
--
Neil Conway <neilconway@home.com>
Get my GnuPG key from: http://klamath.dyndns.org/mykey.asc
Encrypted mail welcomed
Vegetarians do not love animals... they hate plants.
^ permalink raw reply [nested|flat] 3+ messages in thread
* Re: Questions to lists / translations
2001-02-17 09:12 Questions to lists / translations Emmanuel Charpentier <charpent@bacbuc.dyndns.org>
2001-02-23 03:15 ` Re: Questions to lists / translations Neil Conway <nconway@klamath.dyndns.org>
@ 2001-02-23 11:49 ` Pete Forman <pete.forman@westerngeco.com>
0 siblings, 0 replies; 3+ messages in thread
From: Pete Forman @ 2001-02-23 11:49 UTC (permalink / raw)
To: Neil Conway <nconway@klamath.dyndns.org>; +Cc: pgsql-general@postgresql.org
Neil Conway writes:
> On Sat, Feb 17, 2001 at 10:12:27AM +0100, Emmanuel Charpentier wrote:
> > A good "knowledge base" for PostgreSQL was the mailing list
> > archive. However, it started having serious problems abck in
> > november, and I haven't checked it since.
>
> They're also archived on GeoCrawler:
>
> http://www.geocrawler.com/lists/3/Databases/
>
> All the lists are there (-general, -novice, -hackers, etc),
> although I don't know how far back the archive goes.
They only have 9 lists, e.g. -jdbc is missing. It is purportedly
possible to add lists but I have had no response from Geocrawler in
several months of trying to contact them.
The Mail Archive carries 7 pgsql lists. It is fairly straightforward
to add lists though a bit more work to upload existing archives.
http://www.mail-archive.com/index.php3?hunt=pgsql
--
Pete Forman -./\.- Disclaimer: This post is originated
WesternGeco -./\.- by myself and does not represent
pete.forman@westerngeco.com -./\.- opinion of Schlumberger, Baker
http://www.crosswinds.net/~petef -./\.- Hughes or their divisions.
^ permalink raw reply [nested|flat] 3+ messages in thread
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2001-02-17 09:12 Questions to lists / translations Emmanuel Charpentier <charpent@bacbuc.dyndns.org>
2001-02-23 03:15 ` Neil Conway <nconway@klamath.dyndns.org>
2001-02-23 11:49 ` Pete Forman <pete.forman@westerngeco.com>
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