Volunteers needed for the Linux Tutorial

[James Mohr]

Hi All!

I am looking for volunteers to help me with my Linux Tutorial (www.linux-tutorial.info). Since I cannot program well enough to be involved in any open source major project, I have decided to make my book "Linux User's Resource" available on the Web as part of my contribution to the Internet community.

I have updated the book as well as added a lot of new material. In addition, the site contains almost 500 questions to test your knowledge about Linux, the Internet and computers, in general. My goal is to eventually provide all the material included in the LPI certification for both level I and II. You will also find multiple "Did You Know? entries on each page, which provide tips and tricks related to the material. From each page there is also a "More Info" link, which points the visitor to additional resources related to the specific topic.

In additional to its educational goal, the site is to create public awareness for the Jessie Arbogast Medical Fund. If you remember, Jessie is the young boy who was attacked last summer by a shark and had his arm bitten off. As a result, he lost almost all of his blood and doctors on the scene gave him little chance of survival. Well, Jessie survived and despite having his arm re-attached, he has not fully recovered. As is the case with so many middle-class families, the medical care the Jessie requires is a great financial burden (not to mention the emotional burden of working through Jessie's recovery.) Details can be found at www.jimmo.com/Jessie.

Because of the scope of this project, I need as much help as I can get. I am grateful for any contribution you can make. Anything from suggestions for improving the layout or appearance to updating the articles or even writing on new topics will be greatly appreciated. For those of us who cannot program, but would still like to give something back to the Linux community, I think projects like this provide a great opportunity. Plus, we can help a young boy in need, should people make donations to Jessie's medical fund as a result of our work.

Rather than filling the forum, you can reply to me directly (jimmo@jimmo.com). However, how you reply is up to you.

Thanks in advance.

Best Regards,

Jim Mohr

[Wodisch · Accepted solution]

Hi James,

not having visited your site, yet, due to time-restrictions (tomorrow I am on the way to Qatar) I cannot contribute that much, but since you specifically ask about scripting, well, just tell me what is needed, and I'll check what I can do...

Good luck,
Wodisch

[James Mohr]

Hi Wodisch!

How's your perl? What I could really use is a script that finds "similar" words, kind of like what a spell checker does. The tutorial has a glossary, with each word listed indiviudally. I want to have a search mechanism that will find things like "hostname" when the user "inputs "host name" or find "IP address" when the user inputs "IP-address" or "IP adress". If you know of a quick algorithm that does that, I would be really grateful!

regards,

jimmo

[Wodisch]

Hi James,

just back form the desert - don't enjoy the rain, but do enjoy the temperature :-)

Well, I seem to remember a "sound" (like noise, not like reliable) algorithm somewhere in Donald Knuth's work. Using the output of that as the index of a "hash" ("associative array" for the *awk* users) should work just fine...

Regards,
Wodisch

[James Mohr]

Hi Wodisch!

Of course! Find all the words that "sound like" the one you are looking for. Thanks for the tip.

Regards,

jimmo