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Puppy Linux Newsletter
Posted: Fri 24 Feb 2017, 01:47
by smokey01
The Puppy Linux Newsletter can be read online or downloaded at the link below.
http://smokey01.com/newsletters/
If you have information you would like to see in the newsletter, please email it to me at
smokey01@internode.on.net. If you would like to contribute but not by email, it can be done on the web page listed above. Click on the Browse button, select your file then click Upload. Please make sure you put your name somewhere in the contribution.
I prefer the contribution is created in Notecase otherwise it makes my job more difficult than I like. I don't intend doing any significant editing but I will attempt to read all of the articles and ask a couple of others to do some proof reading.
Notecase is very easy to learn and use. As a guideline, try and keep your articles to less than 1000 words. Photos and images should be no bigger than 1024 x 768. I can always make them smaller.
The deadline for articles is the 20th of each month. Let's not worry about time zones. I know it may be the 20th in Australia and only the 19th in the USA but I can live with this. If it's more than 24 hours late with respect to Australian Central Standard Time (ACST) then your article may be pushed right, into the next month/edition. I expect proof reading to take less than a week which will provide about four days to publish at the beginning of each month.
There are two versions of the newsletter. One is an xz compressed Notecase file and the other is an html file so it can be read online in a browser.
You may subscribe to the newsletter by two different methods.
1. Enter your email address in the subscribe field, make sure you select subscribe in the drop down combo box then click on the Go button. Each month when the newsletter is published you will receive an email with links to the newsletter.
2. Click on the RSS feed and choose the method of delivery. Depending on your choice of delivery, links will be either shown in your email client or browser.
Enjoy...
Posted: Fri 24 Feb 2017, 07:09
by peebee
There is now a link to the newsletters on
http://puppylinux.com/ - scroll to bottom of page....
Posted: Sat 25 Feb 2017, 02:11
by bigpup
Need to add info on how to subscribe to Newsletter.
What you get by subscribing, etc.....
I know, should be easy to understand when you go to the web site.
The first post should have all info.
Thanks!!!!
Posted: Tue 28 Feb 2017, 23:19
by smokey01
Posted: Thu 02 Mar 2017, 00:22
by mcewanw
This is a great resource Grant. It's a very beneficial shot in the arm for Puppy. Insufficient or overly technical documentation is always a problem and over the years you have certainly led efforts to address that. Debian Dog has similar documentation problems though Fred has done some good work via wiki/website. DD is a bit fortunate in that pure Debian and Ubuntu docs generally apply anyway , but there are a lot of unique additions that are complex to explain in a user-friendly manner. Part of the problem for the whole of Linux is simply that its perhaps greatest strength, flexibility, results in its weakness: hug GFC he technical documentation that somehow needs to be distilled and simplified.
Well done for this continuously being updated resource, which I enjoy reading.
William
Posted: Thu 02 Mar 2017, 02:28
by Terry H
Being just the third edition, it has developed very quickly into an excellent production. Going forward will be an excellent resource. a really great read.
Thanks smokey01 and all who have contributed.
Posted: Thu 02 Mar 2017, 02:38
by Terry H
Thought to show up in numbers of subscribers I would subscribe.
When I replied to the email (within 2 minutes of subscribing) to finish the subscription I received the following message:
Error: The cookie you provided does not exist. It's possible the URL you provided is invalid or that the cookie has expired.
Edit: On returning to email I read additional methods to confirm subscription. So I have replied to email as advised.
Posted: Thu 02 Mar 2017, 07:48
by bigpup
smokey01,
Great March edition!
About the subscriber number. It is what it will be.
I read it online and choose note to subscribe.
I am sure others do to.
Posted: Thu 02 Mar 2017, 12:00
by anikin
Hi smokey,
From the very outset (in that old thread), I was very skeptical about the newsletter project. Now that I've read this edition, I'm kinda warming up to it. Firstly, because of your personal profile: Respect, that's all I can say. It stands out in stark contrast to the collective profile of this community. Which is, mostly (but not all) a bunch of folks who have never had a decent job in their lifetime, are profoundly unprofessional, uneducated and have too much time on their little hands and don't know what to do with it. Also, it does make sense, that the newsletter comes from
http://smokey01.com and not directly from this forum.
Posted: Thu 02 Mar 2017, 12:14
by musher0
Thanks for the many compliments, anikin!
Posted: Thu 02 Mar 2017, 22:02
by step
Hi smokey, I truly enjoyed reading this issue, thank you. I chose to read it online instead of subscribing.
Your mentioning jemimah and how great a contributor she was, brought pleasant memories to my mind. Her saluki _thread_ captured my attention when I began looking for a Linux version that I could like. Saluki was what brought me to this forum. I still get a warm feeling when I boot Saluki
Posted: Thu 02 Mar 2017, 23:21
by smokey01
anikin wrote:Hi smokey,
From the very outset (in that old thread), I was very skeptical about the newsletter project. Now that I've read this edition, I'm kinda warming up to it. Firstly, because of your personal profile: Respect, that's all I can say. It stands out in stark contrast to the collective profile of this community. Which is, mostly (but not all) a bunch of folks who have never had a decent job in their lifetime, are profoundly unprofessional, uneducated and have too much time on their little hands and don't know what to do with it. Also, it does make sense, that the newsletter comes from
http://smokey01.com and not directly from this forum.
Thanks anikin. I suspect there are many nice and decent people who frequent this forum. I'm sure there are a few as you described as well
Posted: Fri 03 Mar 2017, 00:26
by musher0
I agree with step. The March 2017 issue is very interesting.
index for the newsletter
Posted: Sat 04 Mar 2017, 02:28
by 6502coder
Edit: 2 august 2017
The permanent home for the
Puppy Newsletter Index file and the accompanying
PNI sorter app is now here:
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... 064#950064
Original post follows:
I'd like feedback on whether there is interest in having an index of the articles in the newsletter.
I've created a plain text file index for the 3 newsletters so far, see [link above]. This file can be searched as-is in a text editor, or easily imported into a spreadsheet. Actually it uses the format used by the "fields.awk" database tool that musher0 has promoted. If you just grep out the comment lines, you get a "fields.awk"-ready database, although I think even "fields.awk" is a bit of overkill for someone who only needs to search the index, not edit it.
If there is interest in having this index, I will commit to keeping it up to date. Perhaps someone else can whip up a nice simple GUI to search it. [I did this myself. See link above.]
Posted: Sat 04 Mar 2017, 03:46
by Sailor Enceladus
Just read the March edition. Very interesting. 13 Down in the crossword made me chuckle, thanks greengeek!
I did notice 4 or 5 spelling errors and the end of the beep tutorial was hacked off, where did that proof reader go?
Posted: Sat 04 Mar 2017, 06:52
by greengeek
Sailor Enceladus wrote:. 13 Down in the crossword made me chuckle,:
Does anybody still use it?
6502coder wrote: Actually it uses the format used by the "fields.awk" database tool that musher0 has promoted. If you just grep out the comment lines, you get a "fields.awk"-ready database, although I think even "fields.awk" is a bit of overkill for someone who only needs to search the index, not edit it..
I tried to open the txt file with fields.awk (early version) but couldn't get any sense out of it. What "search string" should I use? Also - should the txt file be placed inside /root/DB_FILES?
Other than fields.awk which method do you recommend to display the index?
cheers!
Posted: Sat 04 Mar 2017, 22:02
by 6502coder
If you've removed the ".zip" and looked at the PNI.txt file in geany or leafpad or whatever, you'll see
- // Puppy Newsletter Index
// This is a flat-file index of the Puppy Newsletter.
// Responsibility for any errors lies with me, "6502coder". Corrections are welcomed!
// However, requests for changes to the "Description" must come from the original
// author.
//
// Fields are as follows
// YearMonth::Author::Category::Title::Description::
// (The next line is for compatibility with the "fields.awk" database tool)
@@@YearMonth::Author::Category::Title::Description::
1701::666philb::Distros::Tahrpup64::Introduction to Tahrpup and a brief description of Tahrpup64 6.0.5 CE::
1701::01micko::Distros::Slacko32/64 700 Beta 2::Announcement of the Slackos built on Slackware 14.2, and a brief description of Slacko64 Puppy 6.9.6.4::
1701::The Fatdog Team::Distros::Fatdog64-710::Announcement of Fatdog64-710::
and so forth. The "//" lines are comments which I said have to be stripped out first with grep if you want to use "fields.awk":
and then you can put the "pni_f.txt" file wherever you keep your "fields.awk" databases. And of course you can use some other name if you prefer.
I don't use "fields.awk" myself but I did test to make sure that it works with my index file. As far as I know, you can use anything you want as a search string. The version of "fields.awk" that I used is the one from here:
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... 741#874741
I used the fields.awk.gz, not the PET.
I was going to throw together a simple GUI to search the index, but there are lots of people here who are much, much better at using yad etc. than I am. For my own use I just use awk.
Posted: Sun 05 Mar 2017, 00:17
by greengeek
6502coder wrote: The "//" lines are comments which I said have to be stripped out first with grep if you want to use "fields.awk":
Thanks. I had just deleted those lines manually.
Initially I wasnt sure what search term to use to display some sort of index - I thought there may have been some way to display subsection titles alphabetically or similar (ie some sort of hiearchical tree...) but I think that is beyond fields awk. Possibly easier to view it in a spreadsheet format as you suggested.
cheers!
Re: index for the newsletter
Posted: Sun 05 Mar 2017, 07:47
by smokey01
6502coder wrote:I'd like feedback on whether there is interest in having an index of the articles in the newsletter.
I've created a plain text file index for the 3 newsletters so far, see attachment. This file can be searched as-is in a text editor, or easily imported into a spreadsheet. Actually it uses the format used by the "fields.awk" database tool that musher0 has promoted. If you just grep out the comment lines, you get a "fields.awk"-ready database, although I think even "fields.awk" is a bit of overkill for someone who only needs to search the index, not edit it.
If there is interest in having this index, I will commit to keeping it up to date. Perhaps someone else can whip up a nice simple GUI to search it.
Good idea. Why not Just enter the data in a speadsheet.
How did you compile the data?
Posted: Sun 05 Mar 2017, 17:16
by 6502coder
@greengeek, smokey01
Thanks for the feedback, guys. There were several reasons I chose not to use a spreadsheet:
1) I had the impression some recent Puppies (or quasi-Puppies) do not come bundled with with a spreadsheet app.
2) I wanted to throw a bone (pun intended) to musher0, who has lobbied for bundling fields.awk as Puppy's simple database app.
3) I figured that someone who wants to use a spreadsheet could import the index easily enough from the flatfile format.
4) The flatfile format makes it easy for someone to roll their own search app using grep or awk, possibly in conjunction with a simple GUI.
I personally prefer the flatfile format, but I'd be happy to provide it already converted to a spreadsheet as well. Any preferences as to which spreadsheet format would be best?
As for how I "compiled" the spreadsheet: I simply read each newsletter cover to cover, and typed up the index in Leafpad along the way! I also wrote myself a couple of awk scripts that help me spot malformed records and generate sorted lists of the authors, categories, and titles, making it easier to catch typos.