Re: [Exim] What do you want in a book?

On 2000-08-15 at 12:44 +0100, Philip Hazel gifted us with:
> 2. Is it an in-depth book that does contain tutorial and example material,
> but aims to cover absolutely everything?

For a start, be prepared to have the full specs in the appendices. If
nothing else, a few hundred extra pages will make the prospective
publisher's eyes gleam at the thought of the price they can charge. ;^)

I'd suggest using the good O'Reilly books as a guide. See if you can
get hold of Aileen Frisch's Essential Systems Administration (2nd Ed).
That's the nearest equivalent (aside from the sendmail book) which comes
to mind. It assumes some competence, but leads the reader through the
various topics, getting more involved as more ground is covered. That
book remains one of my "ideal books" which I recommend, so is perhaps a
good starting point.

And as another point - could chapter 1 please explain how email works,
and the difference between MTAs & MUAs, SMTP/POP3/IMAP and such, so that
you can establish clearly at the start where the boundaries of
responsibility lie. It's not directly Exim-related, but for the newer
readers it's IMHO fairly essential, and will clear up confusion. Just
look at the history of messages on the list, where people don't
understand that it's not Exim's job to _fetch_ mail via
protocol-du-jour. Once all this is out of the way, the ground's clear
to start explaining Exim. :^)

Those are the main things which come to mind. :^)
--
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We believe in world peace through extortionate license fees." -Bluemeat