From gonix.com!owner-auto-faq-users@oasis.novia.net Fri Nov 10 18:34:25 1995
Received: (from majordom@localhost) by oasis.novia.net (8.6.12/Novia) id SAA22303 for auto-faq-users-outgoing; Fri, 10 Nov 1995 18:19:07 -0600
Received: from gonix.gonix.com (gonix.gonix.com [199.171.32.3]) by oasis.novia.net (8.6.12/Novia) with SMTP id SAA22295 for <auto-faq-users@novia.net>; Fri, 10 Nov 1995 18:18:54 -0600
From: pschleck@gonix.gonix.com (Paul W Schleck KD3FU)
Message-Id: <9511110014.AA05532@gonix.gonix.com>
Subject: auto-faq User Tips #3
To: auto-faq-users@oasis.novia.net
Date: Fri, 10 Nov 1995 18:14:40 -0600 (CST)
Reply-To: auto-faq-maint@oasis.novia.net
X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL20]
Content-Type: text
Content-Length: 5416
Sender: owner-auto-faq-users@oasis.novia.net
Precedence: bulk
Status: RO
(My problems getting subscribed to faq-maintainers@consensus.com seem to
be absolutely unsolvable. No one at either end seems to have any idea
what is going on. Therefore, I'm going to send this and all future
auto-faq User Tips bulletins to faq-maintainers-announce@mit.edu
instead.)
This is the auto-faq User Tips bulletin #3. The User Tips will be an
occasional, maybe once every month or two, bulletin of subtle hints and
tricks (as well as bug reports and version updates) for the auto-faq FAQ
management and posting package. It will be posted to
auto-faq-users@novia.net and faq-maintainers-announce@mit.edu.
Back Issues
-----------
I'm going to make back issues of the User Tips available from the
auto-faq WWW Page:
http://www.novia.net/~pschleck/auto-faq/user-tips/
anonymous FTP site:
ftp://ftp.novia.net/customers/pschleck/auto-faq/user-tips/
and ftpmail server:
Send a mail message to ftpmail@ftp.novia.net with the following commands
in the message body:
open
uuencode
get /customers/pschleck/auto-faq/user-tips/INDEX
get /customers/pschleck/auto-faq/user-tips/1
get /customers/pschleck/auto-faq/user-tips/2
get /customers/pschleck/auto-faq/user-tips/3
etc...
Emergency Bug-Fix 3.2pl2
------------------------
There appears to be a significant, fatal bug in the handling of FAQ
source files that are under RCS control. The files aren't damaged in
any way, but the bug causes auto-faq to crash. A full account of the
details is beyond the scope of this bulletin. If you are *really*
curious, you can consult the patch file. This bug only affects users
who have RCS-controlled FAQ files and have the following variable set in
their faq-config file:
chgctrl-type="rcs"
It is not necessary for other users who are using previous versions of
auto-faq to upgrade, but it won't hurt either.
The new version of auto-faq, 3.2pl2, may be found at:
ftp://ftp.novia.net/customers/pschleck/auto-faq/auto-faq32pl2.part1.gz
auto-faq32pl2.part2.gz
auto-faq32pl2.part3.gz
The patch file between 3.2pl1 and 3.2pl2 is:
ftp://ftp.novia.net/customers/pschleck/auto-faq/auto-faq32pl1-32pl2.diff.gz
My apologies for not having thoroughly tested this feature of auto-faq
before release. I've added it to my test suite to ensure that it gets
tested for future versions.
Still Looking for auto-faq 3.3 Beta Testers
-------------------------------------------
The Perl 5.001-compatible version of auto-faq, 3.3 beta, has gotten
stable enough to use in an operational environment (I use it myself for
the Amateur Radio Elmers Resource Directory). I would enthusiastically
welcome any opportunity for expert users to try it out before I release
it to the FAQ maintainer community at large (the impact of the RCS bug
above underscores the need for thorough testing in as wide a range of
environments and interfaces as possible).
Users who may not necessarily be interested in extensive testing and
evaluation, but wish to try a Perl 5.001-compatible version and are
willing to accept the risks of using an experimental version, are also
welcome.
If you are interested, please send me E-mail and I will provide you with
a copy of 3.3 beta in a standard release package.
Still Looking for a Help Desk Volunteer
---------------------------------------
It's still just Ian Kluft and myself. Correspondence to the
auto-faq-help@novia.net Help Desk mailbox has been relatively light
(maybe one or two messages a week that have usually required only brief
responses). We would welcome anyone, even someone who is a little too
busy or underqualified to actually reply to correspondence right now,
but who can read the mail for a while and get up to speed for the near
future. One of the reasons that auto-faq is a viable and maintained
utility to this day is that I was able to almost seamlessly take over
from Ian because I had worked closely with him on enhancements,
bug-fixes, and handling user correspondence. I'd like to make sure that
auto-faq remains viable for the future by having at least one or two
qualified people who can cover for me either temporarily or permanently.
(I'm not going anywhere anytime soon, but it's always a good idea to
have a contingency plan. Certainly no one should feel obligated to have
to take over either, but getting involved has a way of making one feel
like part of a team, and be somewhat protective of their creations and
contributions :-).
If you'd like to volunteer, or simply discuss what volunteering would
involve, drop me a line.
Coming up in a future auto-faq User Tips:
-----------------------------------------
- Further updates on auto-faq 3.3.
- Maintaining documents in a format usable by both auto-faq and
World-Wide Web (WWW) browsers.
- Adding authentication through the use of a PGP signature to
auto-faq-posted FAQ files.
- Even further header customization of auto-faq using user-supplied
extension functions written in Perl that can be evaluated by auto-faq
without modifying the script itself (another powerful capability of
auto-faq 3.x).
- Design ideas for auto-faq 4.0, scheduled to begin development sometime
in the Summer of 1996, and opportunities for users to submit feedback.
--
Paul W. Schleck
auto-faq-maint@novia.net
auto-faq Maintainer