Re: The wiki [was: Re: Soft scrolling on framebuffer consoles]

Hello, Alexis.

On Thu, May 14, 2026 at 11:31:28 +1000, Alexis wrote:
> Alan Mackenzie <[email protected]> writes:

> >>   https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki//etc/portage/patches

> > That is not a well written page.  There is no coherent description
> > of how one specifies the version(s) of a package a patch should be
> > applied to.  Just some cryptic meta-specifications and a few vague
> > examples.

> Fair. The wiki is a volunteer effort, only a small number of us 
> are regularly working on it (with much of that work focused on 
> improving the Handbook), and many of those who contribute / have 
> contributed to the wiki aren't native/fluent English speakers. i 
> try to encourage people to help out, but as i say: "Many people 
> want good documentation; far fewer are willing to help make that 
> happen."

> > The text ought to say what ranges of versions can be specified, 
> > and how
> > to do so.

> Indeed.

> Something that typically comes up in discussions about 
> contributing to the wiki is: "Oh I can't contribute unless I'm 
> familiar with the subject matter of a given page." Overall, this 
> isn't the case; there's always work needing to be done that 
> doesn't require _any_ familiarity with _any_ of the subject 
> matter, e.g. fixing typos and template usage. But more 
> specifically, i myself am _often_ not familiar with the subject of 
> a page that clearly needs work, and this page is a good example.

> In this sort of situation, what i end up doing is:

> * searching for, and within, any related documentation i can find;
> * manually testing scenarios and behaviours (which sometimes 
>   reveals inconsistencies with the docs); and
> * occasionally spelunking through source code (including in 
>   languages i only have a vague knowledge of) in order to 
>   understand or clarify certain behaviours.

> i appreciate that many - most? - people don't have the time or 
> inclination to do this. But i'll also say that, for those who are 
> using Gentoo as a method of getting a deeper knowledge of how 
> Linux systems can work, improving a wiki page by going through the 
> above process might be a useful learning exercise, in addition to 
> being a contribution to the Gentoo community. 

I have just amended the pertinent wiki page.  Perhaps not very
skillfully, but it now contains the information I would have liked to
find a couple of days ago.

> Alexis.
> https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/User:Flexibeast

-- 
Alan Mackenzie (Nuremberg, Germany).