> On 18 Apr 2018, at 20:00, Luca Toscano <toscano.l...@gmail.com> wrote: > > Before joining the httpd project as contributor I struggled to find good > technical sources about how the httpd internals work,
Likewise. That’s kind-of what motivated me to start writing about it. But that’s not to say it’s any worse than other software projects I’ve encountered over the years. There’s always a learning curve, and a struggle to find relevant docs. OK, things have improved a lot since “just google it” became an option, but information still needs unearthing. Are you suggesting httpd is somehow *worse* than other software you’ve hacked in terms of developer documentation? In my experience it’s actually a lot better than most, due primarily to the high standard of API docs in /include/ and in APR, and of course open and searchable source. The contrast is closed source software, where docs inevitably diverge badly from reality. I’ve mused about this in the past: for example https://bahumbug.wordpress.com/2006/11/06/the-documentation-gap/ https://bahumbug.wordpress.com/2008/09/16/security-by-cookery/ > My point is: blogging is fine, but before even starting that I'd focus on > dumping everybody's knowledge in sections of the docs like > http://httpd.apache.org/docs/trunk/developer. It is boring and less fun than > writing C code for sure, but I bet that a ton of people would enjoy details > about how things work. It will be easier for people to spot "liars" in the > web that focus their marketing strategy only on how httpd is "old" and not > performant too.. I’ve called out “liars” once or twice. Or more usually, purveyors of “cargo-cult” whose idea of Apache is rooted in how things haven’t been since 1997 or so. But I’m not sure they’re really the issue. nginx has risen primarily because it’s a genuine solution, and secondarily because it’s had the evangelical community that goes with a challenger against an incumbent. Now that it’s risen to be a competitor on more equal terms, the evangelism still has momentum. Insofar as we care about market share, we could respond in kind, preferably avoiding the wilder fringe. — Nick Kew
