Re: [9fans] a few misc. questions...

[Corey <corey@bitworthy.net>]

Thanks for the comments everyone.


Once I got to a point where I had a cpu/auth server kindof working, and had 
become slightly more comfortable with the bare rudimentary basics of 
working in rio & acme, I decided to stop, and start all over again from
scratch - but this time taking extensive notes on each particular little
step, and integrating the advice and knowledge I've been gleaning
from my questions to 9fans. 

I'm doing this because I'd like to turn my notes into a fairly complete Plan 9
tutorial, aimed toward interested and motivated users who have no existing
prior Plan 9 experience.

I know that there's plenty of good documentation on the web and on
the system via the man pages, but I'd like to put together something 
more cohesive and organized and which progresses from simple topics
to more advanced topics in fairly logical manner. 

So, I'm beginning with a tutorial that details the focused task of _simply_
getting a mere standalone terminal installed and configured, either onto a
machine or using qemu. Having followed this first chapter (installation), the
newly operable terminal will then be used by the tutorial as the platform from
which to introduce the reader/user to the initial primary topics any Plan 9
user ought to be familiar with:

   intro to basic security
   intro to rio
   intro to man
   intro to acme
   intro to rc and basic commands, and directory structure
   intro to /usr/<user>/[bin,lib] files, and how/when to use
   intro to namespaces
   intro to pull
   intro to sources
   intro to the boot sequence and what gets executed when and how
   intro to filesystems: kfs and/or fossil
   intro to patch
   intro to 9fans, etiquette and Plan 9 idioms 

These are placed in the order to which each topic will be introduced, and
each intro will purposefully be rather short, say, 1-3 pages - mere basic,
introductory level amount of detail; each chapter will end with references
to further information relevant to the topic.


From there, I can add other tutorials, where each tutorial progresses a
step or so toward more advanced uses - and each beginning with an 
installation and configuration chapter, which then leads into various 
other chapters detailing specific topics closely related to the tutorial's
major topic.

1: standalone terminal installation & configuration tutorial

2: cpu server intallation & configuration tutorial

3: authentication server configuration tutorial 
(takes the above cputerm and adds auth)

4: terminal connected to cpu/auth server configuration 
(takes the standalone terminal, and explains how to connect to
the user's new cpu/auth server from tutorial #3)

5: fileserver installation and configuration

6: terminal connected to fileserver configuration


... so a total of, maybe 6 tutorials, that combined, pretty much hit the
common use cases - organized in a logical progressive order that a reader
can follow through from start to finish and have a pretty decent handle of a
typical Plan 9 environment upon completing.


Anyhow, just wanted to get that out there; I'll just have to see whether
I keep the momentum - hopefully I will. Once I have something more 
concrete I'll be sure to host it somewhere, preferably via a medium that
allows community edits/comments, etc.

( this is assuming nothing similar already exists - I was unable to really
find anything along the same lines; closest was this newbie-guide:
http://www.covingtoninnovations.com/michael/blog/0807/newbie-guide.pdf )


Cheers


On Tuesday 21 July 2009 22:21:16 Corey wrote:
> In no particular order.  Your help is very much appreciated - still getting
> my legs on w/ plan 9; I make a real effort not to query the list until I'm
> at a standstill.
>