--- /dev/null
+<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1"><title>Foreword</title><link rel="stylesheet" href="samba.css" type="text/css"><meta name="generator" content="DocBook XSL Stylesheets V1.68.1"><link rel="start" href="index.html" title="The Official Samba-3 HOWTO and Reference Guide"><link rel="up" href="index.html" title="The Official Samba-3 HOWTO and Reference Guide"><link rel="prev" href="pr02.html" title="Attribution"><link rel="next" href="TOSHpreface.html" title="Preface"></head><body bgcolor="white" text="black" link="#0000FF" vlink="#840084" alink="#0000FF"><div class="navheader"><table width="100%" summary="Navigation header"><tr><th colspan="3" align="center">Foreword</th></tr><tr><td width="20%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="pr02.html">Prev</a> </td><th width="60%" align="center"> </th><td width="20%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="TOSHpreface.html">Next</a></td></tr></table><hr></div><div class="preface" lang="en"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h2 class="title"><a name="id2517795"></a>Foreword</h2></div></div></div><p>
+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
+<span class="emphasis"><em>rest</em></span> 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.
+</p><p>
+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.
+</p><p>
+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.
+</p><p>
+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 <span class="emphasis"><em>everybody knows</em></span> was the dominant
+emotion of those providing documentation. <span class="emphasis"><em>They</em></span> of the ever present <span class="emphasis"><em>they
+say</em></span> and <span class="emphasis"><em>they know</em></span> are the bane of good standards. If <span class="emphasis"><em>they
+know</em></span>, why are you doing a standard?
+</p><p>
+A <span class="emphasis"><em>good standard</em></span> 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 become 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 <span class="emphasis"><em>correctness</em></span> provide a technical nightmare. Correctness and clarity
+with ambiguity create <span class="emphasis"><em>maybe bits,</em></span> and correctness and unambiguity without clarity provide
+a <span class="emphasis"><em>muddle through</em></span> scenario.
+</p><p>
+And this is <span class="emphasis"><em>the rest of the story</em></span> 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.
+</p><p>
+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.
+</p><p>
+</p><table class="simplelist" border="0" summary="Simple list"><tr><td>Carl Cargill, Senior Director</td></tr><tr><td>Corporate Standardization, The Office of the CTO</td></tr><tr><td>Sun Microsystems</td></tr></table><p>
+</p></div><div class="navfooter"><hr><table width="100%" summary="Navigation footer"><tr><td width="40%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="pr02.html">Prev</a> </td><td width="20%" align="center"> </td><td width="40%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="TOSHpreface.html">Next</a></td></tr><tr><td width="40%" align="left" valign="top">Attribution </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="h" href="index.html">Home</a></td><td width="40%" align="right" valign="top"> Preface</td></tr></table></div></body></html>
projects / samba / blobdiff