Re: slashdot stuff

On Feb 23, 2004, at 8:01 AM, Ben Collins-Sussman wrote:

> Sean Cavanaugh wrote:
>
>> For whatever reason, the documentation causes people to feel the
>> primary or only method of access to the svn database is through
>> Apache.
>
> We've been working hard to change that perception, in the book, as
> well as the FAQ and other website docs. Can you give us specifics? I
> see someone say "we need apache?" in a slashdot post, but he's
> immediately corrected by someone else. That tells me our campaign is
> working. :-)

I haven't looked at the Slashdot thread, but let me suggest the
front-page feature list at http://subversion.tigris.org/ could give
people the impression:

----
   *  Apache as network server, WebDAV/DeltaV for protocol  (separate 
standalone server also available)
Subversion  uses the HTTP-based WebDAV/DeltaV protocol for network  
communications, and uses the Apache web server to provide 
repository-side network service. This gives Subversion a big  advantage 
in stability and interoperability, and provides various  key features 
for free: authentication, basic authorization, wire  compression, and 
repository browsing, for example. For people who simply want to tunnel 
a custom protocol over ssh, Subversion also has a basic standalone 
server process.
----
 From that bullet (and there no others on the topic in that list), I 
could see how someone might assume there is only the Apache 
http:/https: protocols and the ssh+svn: protocol (or svn: over a 
tunneled ssh connection, but if/when people look deeper into the docs, 
they are likely to think of that as ssh+svn: as we've seen on this 
list, even though it is very different--though maybe the docs have been 
updated to clarify this).  svnserver svn: as an alternative network 
access method by itself, without ssh, is not mentioned in the feature 
list and with their mind already set about what they will find in the 
rest of the documentation, new users may just see what they expect to 
see and miss the good alternatives.
-Travis
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