[9fans] how up to date are the PDF doc files on plan9.bell-labs.com?

[a***@skeeve.com]

Hi. Do the postscript / PDF files available from http://plan9.bell-labs.com
reflect the current state of the system? I'm curious about both the reference
manual and the various files from /sys/doc.

Thanks!

Arnold

[Anthony Sorace]

Stick with the source if you have doubts.

Actually, that's not even necessary. The online HTML
version gets the latest changes. You'll only need the
sources if you want to generate PS/PDF explicitly, say
for printing.

Anthony

[erik quanstrom]

[437 files]

Is anyone updating at least the troff versions of the papers? That is,
if I go with the source, will I get something (more) current?

Post by Anthony Sorace

Stick with the source if you have doubts.

Actually, that's not even necessary. The online HTML
version gets the latest changes. You'll only need the
sources if you want to generate PS/PDF explicitly, say
for printing.

Well, actually printing is what I had in mind, but maybe I'm being
too much of a luddite.
Has anyone tried producing the doc using groff under Linux, or would
it require a running Plan 9 system to correctly (re)generate everything?

some of the .ms are updated ... here are the most recent.
--rw-rw-r-- M 764 glenda sys 18522 Jun 16 2011 port.ms
--rw-rw-r-- M 764 glenda sys 30524 Oct 13 2011 compiler.ms
--rw-rw-r-- M 764 glenda sys 37928 Jan 6 13:52 comp.ms
--rw-rw-r-- M 764 glenda sys 31666 Jan 21 20:34 asm.ms

there's a mkfile in /sys/doc which should update all the ps.

groff probablly won't do a good job unless you fix the fonts.

- erik

[Aharon Robbins]

Hi Anthony.

Thanks for the answers.

Post by Anthony Sorace

Post by a***@skeeve.com
Hi. Do the postscript / PDF files available from http://plan9.bell-labs.com
reflect the current state of the system? I'm curious about both the
reference> manual and the various files from /sys/doc.

They do not. I've only verified that the most recent changes are not
in there; I can't say how far back that goes. I'm not sure if there's
a schedule for regeneration. Stick with the source if you have doubts.

OK.

Post by Anthony Sorace
Note that while /sys/man is expected to describe the current state of the
system, that's not really a good assumption for /sys/doc. Some of those
papers describe aspects of the system that have changes significantly
since they were written (the paper on 8? being the most obvious example).

Is anyone updating at least the troff versions of the papers? That is,
if I go with the source, will I get something (more) current?

Post by Anthony Sorace

Post by a***@skeeve.com
Stick with the source if you have doubts.

Actually, that's not even necessary. The online HTML
version gets the latest changes. You'll only need the
sources if you want to generate PS/PDF explicitly, say
for printing.

Well, actually printing is what I had in mind, but maybe I'm being
too much of a luddite.

Has anyone tried producing the doc using groff under Linux, or would
it require a running Plan 9 system to correctly (re)generate everything?

Thanks,

Arnold

[Taj Khattra]

Has anyone tried producing the doc using groff under Linux, or would
it require a running Plan 9 system to correctly (re)generate everything?

not sure about groff, but i think they should be reproducible under linux
using plan9port troff.

[Anthony Sorace]

Is anyone updating at least the troff versions of the papers? That is,
if I go with the source, will I get something (more) current?

It varies by paper. Some are updated, some not. The papers on the
compiler suite get some updates, but the 8œ paper not. That paper,
for example, provides a really good view on how one could use the
system principles to construct a window system; the fact that the
current window system is constructed differently doesn't really
change that.

Well, actually printing is what I had in mind, but maybe I'm being
too much of a luddite.

Nothing wrong with printing. Having a physical copy of the manual
is invaluable when things go sideways, and reading the papers on
a high-DPI, non-reflective surface is a joy. Since I don't believe
anyone has Plan 9 driving an e-Ink display (anyone? anyone?),
paper does nicely.

Has anyone tried producing the doc using groff under Linux, or would
it require a running Plan 9 system to correctly (re)generate everything?

As others have said, I suspect groff will have issues (I have no idea
how to test that locally), but I can confirm that p9p's works as
expected.

Anthony

[Matthew Veety]

Since I don't believe anyone has Plan 9 driving an e-Ink display
(anyone? anyone?),
paper does nicely.

Maybe a good addition to the ARM port?

--
Veety

[Tristan]

Post by Anthony Sorace
Nothing wrong with printing. Having a physical copy of the manual
is invaluable when things go sideways, and reading the papers on
a high-DPI, non-reflective surface is a joy. Since I don't believe
anyone has Plan 9 driving an e-Ink display (anyone? anyone?),
paper does nicely.

i'm hoping to have a prototype together for iwp9 that will include an
epaper display of some sort (E Ink is not very responsive).

enjoy,
tristan

[Aharon Robbins]

Post by Tristan

Post by Anthony Sorace
Nothing wrong with printing. Having a physical copy of the manual
is invaluable when things go sideways, and reading the papers on
a high-DPI, non-reflective surface is a joy. Since I don't believe
anyone has Plan 9 driving an e-Ink display (anyone? anyone?),
paper does nicely.

i'm hoping to have a prototype together for iwp9 that will include an
epaper display of some sort (E Ink is not very responsive).

Sounds cool!

I just activated my Kindle. I mailed myself the PDF of gawk.1 (of course).
At fit-to-screen it's too small, but rotated and increased size it's better.

As an emergency place to keep the Plan 9 manuals, it sure beats lugging
around all that paper. :-) I'll be experimenting some more.

Thanks!

Arnold

[Brian L. Stuart]

I just activated my Kindle.  I mailed myself the PDF of
gawk.1 (of course).
At fit-to-screen it's too small, but rotated and increased
size it's better.
As an emergency place to keep the Plan 9 manuals, it sure
beats lugging
around all that paper. :-)  I'll be experimenting some
more.

I've done some fiddling with the ms macros to add Kindle
support. What I have is:

. \" Override page/font parameters for Kindle
.if '\nK'1' \{\
.nr PS 7
.nr VS 8
.nr LL 3i
.nr TL 3i
.nr PD 0
.nr PI 3n
.nr PO 0.1i
.po 0.1i
.nr HM 0.1i
.nr FM 0.1i
.ds LH
.ds CH
.ds RH
.ds LF
.ds CF
.ds RF
.pl 4i
.tl
\}
.el \{\
.po 1.25i
.nr PO 1.25i
\}

You activate Kindle formatting by setting the K register
to 1. The biggest issue I've run into are tables and
figures that need the space of a larger page. As for
man pages, There's already a register (s) you can set
to 1 to get it format for 9" pages. That does improve
things a bit in portrait orientation scaled to fit the
screen.

Those might at least give you a good starting point.

BLS

[hiro]

Post by Brian L. Stuart

I just activated my Kindle.  I mailed myself the PDF of
gawk.1 (of course).
At fit-to-screen it's too small, but rotated and increased
size it's better.
As an emergency place to keep the Plan 9 manuals, it sure
beats lugging
around all that paper. :-)  I'll be experimenting some
more.

I've done some fiddling with the ms macros to add Kindle
 .      \" Override page/font parameters for Kindle
 .if '\nK'1' \{\
 .nr PS 7
 .nr VS 8
 .nr LL 3i
 .nr TL 3i
 .nr PD 0
 .nr PI 3n
 .nr PO 0.1i
 .po 0.1i
 .nr HM 0.1i
 .nr FM 0.1i
 .ds LH
 .ds CH
 .ds RH
 .ds LF
 .ds CF
 .ds RF
 .pl 4i
 .tl
 \}
 .el \{\
 .po 1.25i
 .nr PO 1.25i
 \}
You activate Kindle formatting by setting the K register
to 1.  The biggest issue I've run into are tables and
figures that need the space of a larger page.  As for
man pages, There's already a register (s) you can set
to 1 to get it format for 9" pages.  That does improve
things a bit in portrait orientation scaled to fit the
screen.
Those might at least give you a good starting point.
BLS

Why don't you guys just print the pdf in landscape A5 format. Should
be readable on all e-ink devices.

[Mohamed]

Hi All,

Can anyone please zip the docs and email them to the group?

Thanks

Post by hiro

Post by Brian L. Stuart

Post by Aharon Robbins
I just activated my Kindle. I mailed myself the PDF of
gawk.1 (of course).
At fit-to-screen it's too small, but rotated and increased
size it's better.
As an emergency place to keep the Plan 9 manuals, it sure
beats lugging
around all that paper. :-) I'll be experimenting some
more.

I've done some fiddling with the ms macros to add Kindle
. \" Override page/font parameters for Kindle
.if '\nK'1' \{\
.nr PS 7
.nr VS 8
.nr LL 3i
.nr TL 3i
.nr PD 0
.nr PI 3n
.nr PO 0.1i
.po 0.1i
.nr HM 0.1i
.nr FM 0.1i
.ds LH
.ds CH
.ds RH
.ds LF
.ds CF
.ds RF
.pl 4i
.tl
\}
.el \{\
.po 1.25i
.nr PO 1.25i
\}
You activate Kindle formatting by setting the K register
to 1. The biggest issue I've run into are tables and
figures that need the space of a larger page. As for
man pages, There's already a register (s) you can set
to 1 to get it format for 9" pages. That does improve
things a bit in portrait orientation scaled to fit the
screen.
Those might at least give you a good starting point.
BLS

Why don't you guys just print the pdf in landscape A5 format. Should
be readable on all e-ink devices.

[Anthony Sorace]

Post by Mohamed
Can anyone please zip the docs and email them to the group?

That is almost universally considered very bad form on mailing lists.

You already have access to everything you need: the papers are
available in HTML, PS, and PDF online:
http://plan9.bell-labs.com/sys/doc/
and there is a searchable, up-to-date version of the manual:
http://plan9.bell-labs.com/sys/man/
If you need some format other than that, download the distribution:
http://plan9.bell-labs.com/plan9/download.html
and extract them from /sys/doc and /sys/man there.

Anthony

[Anthony Sorace]

Post by a***@skeeve.com
Hi. Do the postscript / PDF files available from http://plan9.bell-labs.com
reflect the current state of the system? I'm curious about both the reference
manual and the various files from /sys/doc.

They do not. I've only verified that the most recent changes are not in there; I
can't say how far back that goes. I'm not sure if there's a schedule for
regeneration. Stick with the source if you have doubts.

Note that while /sys/man is expected to describe the current state of the system,
that's not really a good assumption for /sys/doc. Some of those papers describe
aspects of the system that have changes significantly since they were written
(the paper on 8œ being the most obvious example).

Anthony

[a***@skeeve.com]

Thanks Erik.

Is it hard to produce a tar ball of .ps or .pdf files from current troff
input?

Thanks,

Arnold

[erik quanstrom]

i couldn't forward the result in email. see

/n/sources/contrib/quanstro/doc.tbz

- erik

[Aharon Robbins]

Post by erik quanstrom
/n/sources/contrib/quanstro/doc.tbz

THANKS! Copying now (via 9pfuse).

Arnold