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

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Alan Mackenzie <acm@muc.de> 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. 


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

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Re: [gentoo-user] Soft scrolling on framebuffer consoles - with GPM  Handling - revised for kernel 6.18.28 (etc.) Alan Mackenzie <acm@muc.de> - 2026-05-13 00:30 +0200
  Re: [gentoo-user] Soft scrolling on framebuffer consoles - with GPM Handling - revised for kernel 6.18.28 (etc.) Ben Knoble <ben.knoble@gmail.com> - 2026-05-13 02:30 +0200
    Re: [gentoo-user] Soft scrolling on framebuffer consoles - with GPM  Handling - revised for kernel 6.18.28 (etc.) Alexis <flexibeast@gmail.com> - 2026-05-13 07:00 +0200
      Re: [gentoo-user] Soft scrolling on framebuffer consoles - with GPM  Handling - revised for kernel 6.18.28 (etc.) Alan Mackenzie <acm@muc.de> - 2026-05-13 16:30 +0200
        Re: [gentoo-user] Soft scrolling on framebuffer consoles - with GPM  Handling - revised for kernel 6.18.28 (etc.) Michael Orlitzky <mjo@gentoo.org> - 2026-05-13 17:30 +0200
        Re: [gentoo-user] Soft scrolling on framebuffer consoles - with GPM  Handling - revised for kernel 6.18.28 (etc.) Alan Mackenzie <acm@muc.de> - 2026-05-13 22:50 +0200
        Re: [gentoo-user] Soft scrolling on framebuffer consoles - with GPM  Handling - revised for kernel 6.18.28 (etc.) Jack <ostroffjh@users.sourceforge.net> - 2026-05-14 01:50 +0200
          Re: [gentoo-user] Soft scrolling on framebuffer consoles - with GPM  Handling - revised for kernel 6.18.28 (etc.) Alan Mackenzie <acm@muc.de> - 2026-05-14 16:10 +0200
            Re: [gentoo-user] Soft scrolling on framebuffer consoles - with GPM  Handling - revised for kernel 6.18.28 (etc.) Michael Orlitzky <mjo@gentoo.org> - 2026-05-14 17:20 +0200
        The wiki [was: Re: [gentoo-user] Soft scrolling on framebuffer  consoles] Alexis <flexibeast@gmail.com> - 2026-05-14 03:40 +0200
          Re: The wiki [was: Re: [gentoo-user] Soft scrolling on framebuffer  consoles] Alan Mackenzie <acm@muc.de> - 2026-05-15 00:00 +0200
          [gentoo-user] Re: The wiki Alan Mackenzie <acm@muc.de> - 2026-05-15 17:30 +0200
            Re: [gentoo-user] Re: The wiki Alexis <flexibeast@gmail.com> - 2026-05-16 04:00 +0200
              [gentoo-user] Re: The wiki Nuno Silva <nunojsilva@ist.utl.pt> - 2026-05-16 10:30 +0200
                Re: [gentoo-user] Re: The wiki Alexis <flexibeast@gmail.com> - 2026-05-16 11:30 +0200
                [gentoo-user] Re: The wiki Nuno Silva <nunojsilva@ist.utl.pt> - 2026-05-16 11:40 +0200
                Re: [gentoo-user] Re: The wiki Alexis <flexibeast@gmail.com> - 2026-05-16 12:40 +0200
    Re: [gentoo-user] Soft scrolling on framebuffer consoles - with GPM  Handling - revised for kernel 6.18.28 (etc.) Alan Mackenzie <acm@muc.de> - 2026-05-13 13:50 +0200
      Re: [gentoo-user] Soft scrolling on framebuffer consoles - with GPM Handling - revised for kernel 6.18.28 (etc.) Ben Knoble <ben.knoble@gmail.com> - 2026-05-13 14:40 +0200
        Re: [gentoo-user] Soft scrolling on framebuffer consoles - with GPM  Handling - revised for kernel 6.18.28 (etc.) Alan Mackenzie <acm@muc.de> - 2026-05-15 14:10 +0200
          [gentoo-user] Re: Soft scrolling on framebuffer consoles - with GPM Handling - revised for kernel 6.18.28 (etc.) Nuno Silva <nunojsilva@ist.utl.pt> - 2026-05-15 14:40 +0200

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