In message <200009102221.IAA22566@wombat.cs.rmit.edu.au>, Luke Mewburn writes:
>John Hawkinson writes:
>> | 	  Its probably worth including this info in an FAQ - can one of the
>> | 	  www elves handle? :)
>> 
>> As always, it is wrong for this information to be in the FAQ unless
>> it's also in the release documentation. Manpages and install notes,
>> etc.
>
>Why? It is quite possible for someone to ask a Frequently Asked Question
>about the historical reasoning behind a decision, and they want to
>know the answer to it. Should the 3-4 page explanation behind a feature
>decision be in a man page or install note, or just the description of
>the new change.

If in fact the question is frequently asked, it's answer belongs in the
official project documentation. The documentation that is shipped with
the operating system, that is available on the system to someone who
might not have a real-time network connection. If in fact the information
is incidental and historical, this is less important but where the information
is important to understanding how the system works, presence in the
official documentation pool is important.


>I'm not arguing that some of the information in my original post shouldn't
>be put into install notes for a release, however.

My point is that if we are going to expend effort on documenting things,
we had best expend effort documenting it in the official documentation
(the first place users should look) rather than ancillary locations.

--jhawk