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Diffstat (limited to 'docs')
| -rw-r--r-- | docs/Samba3-HOWTO/TOSHARG-foreword-cargill.xml | 79 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | docs/Samba3-HOWTO/index.xml | 2 |
2 files changed, 80 insertions, 1 deletions
diff --git a/docs/Samba3-HOWTO/TOSHARG-foreword-cargill.xml b/docs/Samba3-HOWTO/TOSHARG-foreword-cargill.xml new file mode 100644 index 0000000000..532b2033df --- /dev/null +++ b/docs/Samba3-HOWTO/TOSHARG-foreword-cargill.xml @@ -0,0 +1,79 @@ +<?xml version='1.0'?> +<!DOCTYPE preface PUBLIC "-//Samba-Team//DTD DocBook V4.2-Based Variant V1.0//EN" "http://www.samba.org/samba/DTD/samba-doc"> +<preface> +<title>Foreword</title> + +<para> +When John first asked me to write an introductory piece for his latest book, I was somewhat mystified as to +why he chose me. A conversation with John provided some of the rationale, and he left it to me to fill in the +<emphasis>rest</emphasis> of the story. So, if you are willing to endure a little bit of background, I will +provide the part of the story that John wouldn't provide. +</para> + +<para> +I am the Director of Corporate Standards at Sun Microsystems, and manage Sun's standards portfolio. Before +that, I was the Director of Standards at Netscape, which was when I met John. Before Sun, there was Digital +Equipment Corporation, also standards. I've written several books on standards, and tend to observe (and +occasionally help) the technical and business trends that drive standardization as a discipline. I tend to see +standardization as a management tool, not as a technical discipline – and this is part of the rationale that +John provided. +</para> + +<para> +The book that you have before you focuses on a particular standardized way of doing something – hence, it is a +book about a standard. The most important thing to keep in mind about a standard is the rationale for its +creation. Standards are created not for technical reasons, not for business reasons, but for a deeper and much +more compelling reason. Standards are created and used to allow people to communicate in a meaningful way. +Every standard, if it is a true standard, has as its entire (and only) goal set the increasing of relevant +communication between people. +</para> + +<para> +This primary goal cannot be met however, unless the standard is documented. I have been involved in too many +standardization efforts when it became apparent that <emphasis>everybody knows</emphasis> was the dominant +emotion of those providing documentation. <emphasis>They</emphasis> of the ever present <emphasis>they +say</emphasis> and <emphasis>they know</emphasis> are the bane of good standards. If <emphasis>they +know</emphasis>, why are you doing a standard? +</para> + +<para> +A <emphasis>good standard</emphasis> survives because people know how to use it. People know how to use a +standard when it is so transparent, so obvious, and so easy that it become invisible. And a standard become +invisible only when the documentation describing how to deploy it is clear, unambiguous, and correct. These +three elements must be present for a standard to be useful, allowing communication and interaction between two +separate and distinct entities to occur without obvious effort. As you read this book, look for the evidence +of these three characteristics and notice how they are seamlessly woven into John's text. Clarity and +unambiguity without <emphasis>correctness</emphasis> provide a technical nightmare. Correctness and clarity +with ambiguity create <emphasis>maybe bits,</emphasis> and correctness and unambiguity without clarity provide +a <emphasis>muddle through</emphasis> scenario. +</para> + +<para> +And this is <emphasis>the rest of the story</emphasis> that John couldn't (or wouldn't) bring himself to +state. This book provides a clear, concise, unambiguous, and technically valid presentation of Samba to make +it useful to a user to someone who wants to use the standard to increase communication and the capability +for communication between two or more entities whether person-machine, machine-machine, or person-person. +The intent of this book is not to convince anyone of any agenda political, technical, or social. The intent +is to provide documentation for users who need to know about Samba, how to use it, and how to get on with +their primary responsibilities. While there is pride on John's part because of the tremendous success of +Samba, he write for the person who needs a tool to accomplish a particular job, and who has selected Samba to +be that tool. +</para> + +<para> +The book is a monument to John's perseverance and dedication to Samba and in my opinion to the goal of +standardization. By writing this book, John has provided the users of Samba those that want to deploy it to +make things better a clear, easy, and ultimately valuable resource. Additionally, he has increased the +understanding and utility of a highly useful standard, and for this, as much as for the documentation, he is +owed a debt of gratitude by those of us who rely on standards to make our lives more manageable. +</para> + +<para> +<simplelist> + <member>Carl Cargill, Senior Director</member> + <member>Corporate Standardization, The Office of the CTO</member> + <member>Sun Microsystems</member> +</simplelist> +</para> + +</preface> diff --git a/docs/Samba3-HOWTO/index.xml b/docs/Samba3-HOWTO/index.xml index fff50ef839..4d1e8f01d0 100644 --- a/docs/Samba3-HOWTO/index.xml +++ b/docs/Samba3-HOWTO/index.xml @@ -26,7 +26,7 @@ <?latex \cleardoublepage ?> - <xi:include href="TOSHARG-foreword-tridge.xml"/> + <xi:include href="TOSHARG-foreword-cargill.xml"/> <?latex \cleardoublepage ?> |