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Some Suggestions about Supplementary Content - Raion - 05-09-2021

Hey guys, 

There's a poll here, mostly to see what kind of content you all would find most helpful to supplement the wiki's primary topics with. I'll explain the types of content that each option entails below:

1. IRIX Usage Tutorials

Mostly more rephrasing, repackaging and refactoring of existing pages out there explaining how to do basic tasks of IRIX. 

The most contemporary example on the wiki is: https://wiki.irixnet.org/IRIX-Setup-101

So a vote for this is a vote for that variety of content

2. Programming Tips, Topics and Such

Note this is DISTINCT from tutorials proper. Rather, this is me exploring and trying to explain common difficulties of porting to IRIX. There's a lot of ground I can cover here, but a an example is: https://wiki.irixnet.org/Common-Porting-Issues or https://wiki.irixnet.org/MIPSPro

A vote for this is more of that type. 

3. Programming Tutorials

I'm not to the point my skills are such that programming on big topics, and talking about them at length, are my specialty. However, I'm rapidly getting to the point I can do that; so this will be basically a "Learn C/C++, Learn OpenGL/IRISGL, Learn TCL/Lua" type set of tutorials, adapted to IRIX and adapted solely to an IRIX-centric audience. They'll cover common issues that you'd find coding for IRIX and more. 

I don't have any examples of this, and I suppose that the biggest roadblock here will be making sure that what I write is technically accurate and not teaching bad habits and spending appropriate amounts of time explaining it. I found a lot of frustration just starting out on just how little UNIX-centric coding material is up to date, and not just K&R, early ANSI, or C89 related stuff. 

4. Advanced IRIX Administration Tutorials

The structure of these would be presenting a question or a problem, exploring 2-3 solutions, and walking the reader through those solutions and how to solve them on IRIX. Instead of just telling the user what to do, teach them how to make an educated guess of which method suits them the most and such. 

5. Techpubs/Manual Repositories

Lemme be clear, I'm least enthusiastic about this idea. We have http://irix7.com, http://techpubs.jurassic.nl etc. and all of these together do a fantastic, and I mean it, job of curating content and have a longer establishment on the web than we do. I am content to let them hold that niche currently, but I put it in here anyways because it may one day become a necessity.

RE: Some Suggestions about Supplementary Content - weblacky - 05-10-2021

I don't know how to articulate this but...I want "next steps". Like" Ok, you've just used our install guide to install Irix 6.5.30 on a later model machine, the next steps are":

SSH that works with modern OSes (GUIDE)
Securing the machine and turning off broken or unneeded services (GUIDE)
First patchsets and programs you should install for a standard base (GUIDE)

if Dev, start here..
if Admin (diskless, etc...) start here..
if games, start here...

I here about patchsets and programs...but I have no idea where this stuff is, is this part of something larger, etc...I don't know the context of much of what's said. I'm not on discord or anything else...I know only what's posted here and past info. So at times i feel like some posted project info is very disjointed.

So perhaps work on that? Unify the information to make it more guided in this way? Give me a gateway to work through all these topics and repositories and such.

RE: Some Suggestions about Supplementary Content - Raion - 05-10-2021

While keeping in mind a few things, namely that IRIX Community Edition isn't ready for primetime and that's why a public release hasn't happened yet, let me do my best to articulate your points, respond to them etc:

> SSH that works with modern OSes

I already got one. https://wiki.irixnet.org/SSH-Setup-on-IRIX-6.5 But I plan to elaborate that more, as it's a rough port with outstanding issues that really deserves more time and effort to massage. that's why i've not publicized it as much. My opinion is that if you have to make it too hard for a normal user to expect how to use it, it isn't quite ready. Does that make sense?

> Securing the machine and turning off broken or unneeded services

https://wiki.irixnet.org/IRIX-Setup-101 I think is what you're looking for. If not, be specific?

> First patchsets and programs you should install for a standard base (GUIDE)

This does go along with documentation and the specifications of IRIX Community Edition, which serves as a successor to SGI patches in many ways. In fact, once it's stable and well-tested to my liking, expect obsolete patches on the ftp to go byebye to the obsolete directory of the nonfree.irixnet.org space so that people don't pick them up by mistake when they're clearly superseded. I'll keep them around for posterity, of course!

The documentation for IRIX Community Edition is going to cover installation, usage and development based upon it.

The specification is for people who wish to go in a different direction. I.e. so they can form their own ideas about development.

> I here about patchsets and programs...but I have no idea where this stuff is, is this part of something larger, etc...I don't know the context of much of what's said. I'm not on discord or anything else...I know only what's posted here and past info. So at times i feel like some posted project info is very disjointed.

We don't have a discord. You're not missing out. I have the mattermost, but it has been disappointingly underutilized. I have no need for live discussion, especially on popular platforms. The element of non-users and people with toxic opinions was too much to deal with, even for me, and turned me into a person I really didn't like. In regards to the forums, everything I say and do on here is public, with the exception of the premium section and the PMs I exchange.

As far as why it's "disjointed". A lot of projects, such as IRIX Community Edition, are new, experimental and not quite ready for everyday usage. Hence I'm hesitant to tie everything together under one chain. A lot of what I've done in recent months is to provide alternatives to existing tools, and throw a bunch of stuff and strategies at the wall and see what sticks. A shotgun approach, if you will. The purpose of stuff like, say "optxeno" is for developers who want a small package of useful programs on startup and want to be able to easily just remove and replace the entire directory as updates come. The purpose of IRIX Community Edition is to firstly provide patches, and eventually repackage the OS as well into modern forms. Think of a preapplied IRIX distribution with updated settings, security updates etc. There's no need at that point to spend hours customizing and installing stuff, it's all done for you. The purpose of some of the other stuff I'm working on? A lot of small offshoots designed to test the viability of ideas. Once I have a pipeline from base os, to software packaging, to guides, to end-user distribution and website services, you can expect some projects to go abandoned due to the pipeline we establish just being arguably "better".

I spent 2 years trying to bark orders and not bothering to get my hands dirty. That was a shitty impression, if I say so myself. I've since done my best to make strides to improve myself as a leader, as a developer and as a progenitor of content. I hope my efforts count for something. I may be a moron at times, but I do my damnedest to get better.