Date: Wed, 18 Jan 2006 19:14:22 -0600
From: "Jim C. Nasby" <jnasby@pervasive.com>
To: Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us>
Cc: Scott Marlowe <smarlowe@g2switchworks.com>, pgsql-docs@postgresql.org
Subject: Re: vacuum and routine maintenance docs
Message-ID: <20060119011422.GM17896@pervasive.com>
References: <1137518049.25500.27.camel@state.g2switchworks.com>
	<20060117224941.GI17896@pervasive.com>
	<1137538769.25500.49.camel@state.g2switchworks.com>
	<20060118221951.GT17896@pervasive.com>
	<1137626008.25500.90.camel@state.g2switchworks.com>
	<5713.1137632107@sss.pgh.pa.us>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Disposition: inline
In-Reply-To: <5713.1137632107@sss.pgh.pa.us>
User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.11

On Wed, Jan 18, 2006 at 07:55:07PM -0500, Tom Lane wrote:
> Scott Marlowe <smarlowe@g2switchworks.com> writes:
> > Well, I'm kind of tempted to rewrite the whole section.  I'd like to
> > come up with some objectives of what we're trying to cover there, and
> > basically start over with all the information that's there plus the
> > other stuff on fsm and mvcc as it applies to vacuum, or link to it as
> > needed.
> 
> > To me, the docs feel kind of like they've evolved over time, so the
> > ordering and general layout feel klunky.  No slam on the folks who wrote
> > them to start with, or updated them.  Just makes my tech docs training
> > come out.
> 
> You're certainly right about the history of the docs, and I agree that a
> ground-up rewrite is the only thing that would help much --- trying to
> incorporate new separately-written material is just going to be "more of
> the same", ISTM, no matter how good that material might be on its own.
> 
> Is it reasonable to try to make an outline of how you think the chapter
> should go, or would that be premature without more discussion of
> objectives?

I'm wondering if people feel this is an issue with the docs in general
and isn't limited to just the admin stuff?

I know I certainly have trouble finding things... I generally look for
stuff by going to the appropriate page in the SQL syntax section and
seeing what it links too, but of course there's a lot of things that
aren't (and shouldn't be) linked to from there...
-- 
Jim C. Nasby, Sr. Engineering Consultant      jnasby@pervasive.com
Pervasive Software      http://pervasive.com    work: 512-231-6117
vcard: http://jim.nasby.net/pervasive.vcf       cell: 512-569-9461