Re: Step by Step Startup ??

[David Masterson]

Forgive the strange quoting, but I don't have a good mail reader at the moment.

David Masterson
Symbol Technologies

>>> David Douthitt <ssrat@mailbag.com> 02/18/05 12:18PM >>>
I've been working at clarifying the documentation included with 
CFengine.  I would recommend that people don't focus on the Wiki only. 
What are going to do if cfengine makes your Internet gateway die and 
you're stuck off the net?

Or maybe you're having problems during a business recovery and it has to 
do with CFengine and you've no network yet?

Or what if you're on the plane to Rio de Janero and need something to read?
>>> David Douthitt <ssrat@mailbag.com> 02/18/05 12:18PM >>>

True, the documentation should get you going, but, unless you want the document 
to grow bigger than cfengine, it can't address all the problems that might come 
up.  The wiki (which should be mentioned in the documents) can provide a 
resource where people could share their problems/solutions for getting up and 
running with cfengine.  Also, the wiki could be an initial draft of future 
documentation.  As interesting information is added to the wiki that appears to 
be highly needed, it can be replicated into the documentation.  This, of 
course, depends on how many contributors you get for the wiki.

>>> David Douthitt <ssrat@mailbag.com> 02/18/05 12:18PM >>>
As for the docs, it sounds like a "What Do I Do Now?" section would be 
good - an after install section.
>>> David Douthitt <ssrat@mailbag.com> 02/18/05 12:18PM >>>

Actually, the documents should probably also have an "install" section.  You 
might say that, if the person is reading the document, then he's probably 
already installed cfengine.  However, there are many places (including 
cfengine.org) where the documents are posted and a new user might find this 
information useful even before he's downloaded cfengine.