Greetings: Recently I received a letter from a fellow who civilly noted how atrocious is so much of the documentation for Linux audio software. While that may be generally true it is also easy to point out specific excellent docos, e.g., Snd, Csound, LilyPond, Rosegarden, etc., though too at the same time it must be admitted that even those docs are not necessarily the most well-organized. Perhaps this fellow's most damning statement was made re: the HOWTOs available from the Linux Documentation Project (LDP). I decided to check out the situation myself, and here's what I found (the doc is followed by its last revision date): Linux Sound HOWTO July 2001 ALSA Sound mini-HOWTO November 1999 Linux MIDI HOWTO May 2002 Linux MP3 HOWTO December 2001 Worse, the LDP's own documentation refers back to these out-of-date pieces, making sure that readers continue to be misinformed. I mean no critique of the excellent LPD, but it seems to me that as a community we have an obligation to correct this situation. For all the talk about improving documentation, here's a chance for anyone to get directly involved. The format for these HOWTOs is simple and already laid out: what's needed is currency, someone to correct and update the basic sound & music oriented HOWTOs. Otherwise it might be better if we asked the LDP to remove the docs in order to mitigate confusion. Any comments ? Any takers ? Does anyone care ? Best regards, dp
