update preface.texi contributors

* doc/ref/preface.texi (Contributors): Rewrite and update.

diff --git a/doc/ref/preface.texi b/doc/ref/preface.texi
index d0adf36..9e95685 100644 (file)
--- a/doc/ref/preface.texi
+++ b/doc/ref/preface.texi
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 @c -*-texinfo-*-
 @c This is part of the GNU Guile Reference Manual.
-@c Copyright (C)  1996, 1997, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004
+@c Copyright (C)  1996, 1997, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2010
 @c   Free Software Foundation, Inc.
 @c See the file guile.texi for copying conditions.
 
@@ -19,38 +19,53 @@ Language for Extensions.  It relates particularly to Guile version
 @node Contributors
 @unnumberedsec Contributors to this Manual
 
-The Guile reference and tutorial manuals were written and edited
-largely by Mark Galassi and Jim Blandy.  In particular, Jim wrote the
-original tutorial on Guile's data representation and the C API for
+Like Guile itself, the Guile reference manual is a living entity, cared
+for by many people over a long period of time.  As such, it is hard to
+identify individuals of whom to say ``yes, this person, she wrote the
+manual.''
+
+Still, among the many contributions, some caretakers stand out.  First
+among them is Neil Jerram, who has been working on this document for ten
+years now.  Neil's attention both to detail and to the big picture have
+made a real difference in the understanding of a generation of Guile
+hackers.
+
+Next we should note Marius Vollmer's effect on this document.  Marius
+maintained Guile during a period in which Guile's API was
+clarified---put to the fire, so to speak---and he had the good sense to
+effect the same change on the manual.
+
+Martin Grabmueller made substantial contributions throughout the manual
+in preparation for the Guile 1.6 release, including filling out a lot of
+the documentation of Scheme data types, control mechanisms and
+procedures.  In addition, he wrote the documentation for Guile's SRFI
+modules and modules associated with the Guile REPL.
+
+Ludovic Courtès and Andy Wingo, the Guile maintainers at the time of
+this writing (late 2010), have also made their dent in the manual,
+writing documentation for new modules and subsystems in Guile 2.0.  They
+are also responsible for ensuring that the existing text retains its
+relevance as Guile evolves.  @xref{Reporting Bugs}, for more information
+on reporting problems in this manual.
+
+The content for the first versions of this manual incorporated and was
+inspired by documents from Aubrey Jaffer, author of the SCM system on
+which Guile was based, and from Thomas Lord, Guile's first maintainer.
+Although most of this text has been rewritten, all of it was important,
+and some of the structure remains.
+
+The first versions of the first versions of Guile were written and
+edited largely by Mark Galassi and Jim Blandy.  In particular, Jim wrote
+the original tutorial on Guile's data representation and the C API for
 accessing Guile objects.
 
-Significant portions were contributed by Gary Houston (contributions
-to POSIX system calls and networking, expect, I/O internals and
-extensions, slib installation, error handling) and Tim Pierce
-(sections on script interpreter triggers, alists, function tracing).
-
-Tom Lord contributed a great deal of material with early Guile
-snapshots; although most of this text has been rewritten, all of it
-was important, and some of the structure remains.
-
-Aubrey Jaffer wrote the SCM Scheme implementation and manual upon
-which the Guile program and manual are based.  Some portions of the
-SCM and SLIB manuals have been included here verbatim.
-
-Since Guile 1.4, Neil Jerram has been maintaining and improving the
-reference manual.  Among other contributions, he wrote the Basic
-Ideas chapter, developed the tools for keeping the manual in sync
-with snarfed libguile docstrings, and reorganized the structure so as
-to accommodate docstrings for all Guile's primitives.
-
-Martin Grabmueller has made substantial contributions throughout the
-reference manual in preparation for the Guile 1.6 release, including
-filling out a lot of the documentation of Scheme data types, control
-mechanisms and procedures.  In addition, he wrote the documentation
-for Guile's SRFI modules and modules associated with the Guile REPL.
-
-The chapter on GOOPS was written by Christian Lynbech, Mikael
-Djurfeldt and Neil Jerram.
+Significant portions were also contributed by Thien-Thi Nguyen, Kevin
+Ryde, Mikael Djurfeldt, Christian Lynbech, Julian Graham, Gary Houston,
+Tim Pierce, and a few dozen more.  You, reader, are most welcome to join
+their esteemed ranks.  Visit Guile's web site at
+@uref{http://www.gnu.org/software/guile/} to find out how to get
+involved.
+
 
 @node Guile License
 @unnumberedsec The Guile License