Making Submissions
If you have written a shell program for GNO or ORCA/Shell, please take a
minute and submit a describe entry. If you don't know what a describe
entry looks like, see the
descc(8)
manual page or look at the describe database source file. Alternately,
the file
ftp://ftp.gno.org/pub/apple2/gs.specific/gno/doc/templates10.shk
contains examples of describe entries plus other recommended methods of
documenting your programs.
There are two ways to submit a describe entry:
- Use the form, below; or
- Email your entry or entries to
describe-submit@trenco.gno.org.
Since the recipient of this address is a filter, is is mandatory
that your mail conform to the following conventions:
- You must have the word "describe" somewhere in the
subject line. The case doesn't matter.
- The body of your message may only contain one or more describe
entries. All field names (such as "Name:" and
"Shell:") must be at the start of a line. The
last (description) field is ended either at the end of the
message, or when the next "Name:" field is found.
- If your email software appends your .signature file, ensure
that your signature is delimited from the body of the message
in the standard fashion: By two dash ('-') characters
followed by a newline. There newline may be preceeded by
whitespace.
- Do not use mailers which automaticly insert html formatting
information outside of the message headers.
If your email does not conform to these conventions, then it will
be ignored by the filter.
The master database may take a few days before it is updated, regardless
of which method you use. This is because a human reviews the entries
before they are added to the database. This check is done to avoid
abuse by malicious individuals.
We recommend that you actually include a describe entry in with your
program files. (Describe files usually use the suffix ".desc").
That way, it is easier to remember to update your describe entry when
you update your program, and you only have to fill out the information
once.
If you are updating a program that has been around for a while, you
might want to check for an existing describe entry before making a
submission. Many programs have entries in the database even though
none are included in the sources. (In most cases, the programs predate
the database.)
Back to the Describe Database Page.