gnustandards ChangeLog maintain.texi standards....

[Karl Berry]

CVSROOT:        /sources/gnustandards
Module name:    gnustandards
Changes by:     Karl Berry <karl>       11/05/09 18:05:21

Modified files:
        .              : ChangeLog maintain.texi standards.texi 

Log message:
        xref updates, more about getting help, wording

CVSWeb URLs:
http://cvs.savannah.gnu.org/viewcvs/gnustandards/ChangeLog?cvsroot=gnustandards&r1=1.136&r2=1.137
http://cvs.savannah.gnu.org/viewcvs/gnustandards/maintain.texi?cvsroot=gnustandards&r1=1.199&r2=1.200
http://cvs.savannah.gnu.org/viewcvs/gnustandards/standards.texi?cvsroot=gnustandards&r1=1.203&r2=1.204

Patches:
Index: ChangeLog
===================================================================
RCS file: /sources/gnustandards/gnustandards/ChangeLog,v
retrieving revision 1.136
retrieving revision 1.137
diff -u -b -r1.136 -r1.137
--- ChangeLog   28 Mar 2011 22:56:55 -0000      1.136
+++ ChangeLog   9 May 2011 18:05:20 -0000       1.137
@@ -1,3 +1,17 @@
+2011-05-09  Karl Berry  <address@hidden>
+
+       * maintain.texi (Old Versions): VC node name changed in Emacs manual,
+       update xref.
+       (Getting Help): be more encouraging about using mentors;
+       mention sysadmin.
+
+       * standards.texi (Contributions): explicit xref to relevant
+       section in maintainers guide.
+       (Semantics): mention strerror.
+       (Memory Usage): use the more-general "memory analysis" instead
+       of specifically "memory leak", since there are plenty of
+       other false-positive memory diagnostics besides leaks.
+
 2011-03-28  Karl Berry  <address@hidden>
 
        * standards.texi (Top): fix @top to be the real title, not the

Index: maintain.texi
===================================================================
RCS file: /sources/gnustandards/gnustandards/maintain.texi,v
retrieving revision 1.199
retrieving revision 1.200
diff -u -b -r1.199 -r1.200
--- maintain.texi       29 Jan 2011 00:39:24 -0000      1.199
+++ maintain.texi       9 May 2011 18:05:21 -0000       1.200
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@
 @c For double-sided printing, uncomment:
 @c @setchapternewpage odd
 @c This date is automagically updated when you save this file:
address@hidden lastupdate January 20, 2011
address@hidden lastupdate May 9, 2011
 @c %**end of header
 
 @dircategory GNU organization
@@ -128,10 +128,12 @@
 @cindex help, getting
 
 @cindex @code{mentors@@gnu.org} mailing list
-If you have general questions or encounter a situation where it isn't
-clear what to do, you can ask @email{mentors@@gnu.org}, which is a
-list of a few experienced GNU contributors who have offered to answer
-questions for new maintainers.
+If you have any general questions or encounter a situation where it
+isn't clear how to get something done or who to ask, you (as a GNU
+contributor) can always write to @email{mentors@@gnu.org}, which is a
+list of a few experienced GNU folks who have volunteered to answer
+questions.  Any GNU-related question is fair game for the
address@hidden list.
 
 @cindex advisory committee
 The GNU Advisory Committee helps to coordinate activities in the GNU
@@ -142,6 +144,21 @@
 committee members.  Additional information is in
 @file{/gd/gnuorg/advisory}.
 
address@hidden down, when GNU machines are
address@hidden outage, of GNU machines
address@hidden @url{http://identi.ca/group/fsfstatus}
+If you find that any GNU computer systems (@code{fencepost.gnu.org},
address@hidden, @code{www.gnu.org}, @code{savannah.gnu.org},
address@hidden) seem to be down, you can check the current status at
address@hidden://identi.ca/group/fsfstatus}.  Most likely the problem, if
+it can be alleviated at the FSF end, is already being worked on.
+
address@hidden sysadmin, FSF
address@hidden FSF system administrators
address@hidden GNU system administrators
+The FSF system administrators are responsible for the network and GNU
+hardware.  You can email them at @email{sysadmin@@fsf.org}, but please
+try not to burden them unnecessarily.
 
 
 @node Getting a GNU Account
@@ -162,15 +179,6 @@
 
 @gdgnuorgtext{}
 
address@hidden down, when GNU machines are
address@hidden outage, of GNU machines
address@hidden @url{http://identi.ca/group/fsfstatus}
-If you find that any GNU computer systems (@code{fencepost.gnu.org},
address@hidden, @code{www.gnu.org}, @code{savannah.gnu.org},
address@hidden) seem to be down, you can check the current status at
address@hidden://identi.ca/group/fsfstatus}.  Most likely the problem, if
-it can be alleviated at the FSF end, is already being worked on.
-
 
 @node Stepping Down
 @chapter Stepping Down
@@ -1163,8 +1171,9 @@
 It is very important to keep backup files of all source files of GNU.
 You can do this using a source control system (such as Bazaar, RCS,
 CVS, Git, Subversion, @dots{}) if you like.  The easiest way to use
-RCS or CVS is via the Version Control library in Emacs (@pxref{VC
-Concepts,, Concepts of Version Control, emacs, The GNU Emacs Manual}).
+RCS or CVS is via the Version Control library in Emacs
+(@pxref{Introduction to VC,, Introduction to Version Control, emacs,
+The GNU Emacs Manual}).
 
 The history of previous revisions and log entries is very important for
 future maintainers of the package, so even if you do not make it

Index: standards.texi
===================================================================
RCS file: /sources/gnustandards/gnustandards/standards.texi,v
retrieving revision 1.203
retrieving revision 1.204
diff -u -b -r1.203 -r1.204
--- standards.texi      28 Mar 2011 22:56:55 -0000      1.203
+++ standards.texi      9 May 2011 18:05:21 -0000       1.204
@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@
 @setfilename standards.info
 @settitle GNU Coding Standards
 @c This date is automagically updated when you save this file:
address@hidden lastupdate March 28, 2011
address@hidden lastupdate May 5, 2011
 @c %**end of header
 
 @dircategory GNU organization
@@ -181,6 +181,7 @@
 Or use a simple garbage collector instead of tracking precisely when
 to free memory, or use a new GNU facility such as obstacks.
 
+
 @node Contributions
 @section Accepting Contributions
 @cindex legal papers
@@ -223,10 +224,11 @@
 contributor.  We could be very embarrassed in court some day as a
 result.
 
-We have more detailed advice for maintainers of programs; if you have
-reached the stage of actually maintaining a program for GNU (whether
-released or not), please ask us for a copy.  It is also available
-online for your perusal: @uref{http://www.gnu.org/prep/maintain/}.
+We have more detailed advice for maintainers of GNU packages.  If you
+have reached the stage of maintaining a GNU program (whether released
+or not), please take a look: @pxref{Legal Matters,,, maintain,
+Information for GNU Maintainers}.
+
 
 @node Trademarks
 @section Trademarks
@@ -594,6 +596,7 @@
 In particular, don't reject a new feature, or remove an old one,
 merely because a standard says it is ``forbidden'' or ``deprecated.''
 
+
 @node Semantics
 @section Writing Robust Programs
 
@@ -604,6 +607,7 @@
 are silently truncated''.  This is not acceptable in a GNU utility.
 
 @cindex @code{NUL} characters
address@hidden libiconv
 Utilities reading files should not drop NUL characters, or any other
 nonprinting characters @emph{including those with codes above 0177}.
 The only sensible exceptions would be utilities specifically intended
@@ -611,15 +615,16 @@
 that can't handle those characters.
 Whenever possible, try to make programs work properly with
 sequences of bytes that represent multibyte characters, using encodings
-such as UTF-8 and others.
+such as UTF-8 and others.  You can use libiconv to deal with a wide
+range of encodings.
 
 @cindex error messages
-Check every system call for an error return, unless you know you wish to
-ignore errors.  Include the system error text (from @code{perror} or
-equivalent) in @emph{every} error message resulting from a failing
-system call, as well as the name of the file if any and the name of the
-utility.  Just ``cannot open foo.c'' or ``stat failed'' is not
-sufficient.
+Check every system call for an error return, unless you know you wish
+to ignore errors.  Include the system error text (from @code{perror},
address@hidden, or equivalent) in @emph{every} error message
+resulting from a failing system call, as well as the name of the file
+if any and the name of the utility.  Just ``cannot open foo.c'' or
+``stat failed'' is not sufficient.
 
 @cindex @code{malloc} return value
 @cindex memory allocation failure
@@ -2329,10 +2334,11 @@
 
 @pindex valgrind
 @cindex memory leak
-Memory leak detectors such as @command{valgrind} can be useful, but
+Memory analysis tools such as @command{valgrind} can be useful, but
 don't complicate a program merely to avoid their false alarms.  For
 example, if memory is used until just before a process exits, don't
-free it simply to silence a leak detector.
+free it simply to silence such a tool.
+
 
 @node File Usage
 @section File Usage