mirror of
https://github.com/samba-team/samba.git
synced 2024-12-23 17:34:34 +03:00
579c91581f
This fixes bug #4245. Thanks to David McNeill <davemc [at] mcpond.co.nz> for reporting! Karolin
80 lines
4.7 KiB
XML
80 lines
4.7 KiB
XML
<?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 becomes invisible. And a standard becomes
|
|
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
|
|
the Samba documentation, he writes 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>
|