Re: Thoughts on the GDB "documentation" web page

[Pedro Alves <pedro@codesourcery.com>]

On Monday 09 November 2009 17:44:27, Joel Brobecker wrote:
>     |    Online GDB Documentation
>     |    GDB provides a set of documents (including manuals) that are
>     |    available from the links below:
>     |      * For the <URL>last release</URL>
>     |      * For the <URL>head branch</URL>
>     |      * For the currently active <URL>branch</URL>
>     |
>     |    Printed Manuals
>     |    <contents unchanged>
>     |
>     |    Translated manuals
>     |    Translations of the GDB manual are also available:
>     |      [...]
> 

I never quite understood the policy of having "last release" up only.
Why not have something like the gcc folks have?

 http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

These are manuals for the latest releases.

    * GDB 7.0 manuals:
          o <URL>GDB User Manual</URL> (<URL>also in PDF</URL> or <URL>PostScript</URL> or an <URL>HTML tarball</URL>)
          o <URL>GDB Internals Manual</URL> (<URL>also in PDF</URL> or <URL>PostScript</URL> or an <URL>HTML tarball</URL>)
    * GDB 6.8 manuals:
          o GDB User Manual (also in PDF or PostScript or an HTML tarball)
          o GDB Internals Manual (also in PDF or PostScript or an HTML tarball)
    * GDB 6.7 manuals:
          o GDB User Manual (also in PDF or PostScript or an HTML tarball)
          o GDB Internals Manual (also in PDF or PostScript or an HTML tarball)
    ...

Current development

Please note that the following documentation refers to current development. Some information may not be applicable to any existing release.

          o GDB User Manual (also in PDF or PostScript or an HTML tarball)
          o GDB Internals Manual (also in PDF or PostScript or an HTML tarball)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This gives emphasis to _releases_, which, IMO is the right
thing to do.

One problem with the "last release" kind of links is
that "last release" is not stable over time.  A scheme like
the above has no such problem.  A cross-link from a random
site to to a page in our 6.8 manual should be live forever;
something that is not true currently.

-- 
Pedro Alves