[plug] Man pages

[Greg Gamble]

On Tue, 16 Feb 1999, Bevan Broun wrote:
> So does nobody like man pages except me? 

No. I like them too. Why? ... because they are a low-level standard,
they are terse, and they have a consistent format ... so that you know
where to look for the info, and will display on a non-graphical terminal.

So-called `Help' delivered via HTML, in my experience,
has seldom been helpful ... I recall trying to track down how to logout
of an SGI once without being prompted with one of those infuriating
`Are you sure?'-style messages. Grrr! It wasn't in the help (HTML-type)
... I finally worked out that the GUI called a program endsession, and
looked up the man page ... ahh! the option I wanted was -q ... with an
alias, I then had a 2-keystroke instant log-off. Such is my usual
experience with this HTML help pages ... the people who write them
spend too much time prettying them up and loading them with propaganda
on how good whatever is, it seems.

> For some larger man pages I
> like the html format but most of the time I prefer using man. man is
> small and fast and, with PAGER set to less, searching is easier.

Ditto!

> I really get annoyed at programs that dont supply a man page. 

Ditto!

> ...got a .info file - now you have to learn how to use the info program,
> after installing it, which took me a while and is something I use so
> infrequently that Im never going to be good at it. 

And how do you learn how to use info ... man?

> Man I use all the time on many different unixes.
> 
> I like man pages!

Dittos * 2. Don't get me wrong, I do think HTML delivery of info. is
very powerful and use it extensively myself ... but when all you want is
a synopsis on how to use it and what options it has: man is the way to
deliver it. Many programs effectively deliver a man-page when called
without arguments - which I also think is good - e.g. in programs written
in Perl.

  Regards,
  Greg Gamble
___________________________________________________________________
Greg Gamble   __________________        mailto:gregg at csee.uq.edu.au
Centre for Discrete Mathematics & Computing    Tel: +61-7 336 52425
Department of Computer Science                 Fax: +61-7 336 54999
      & Electrical Engineering     http://www.csee.uq.edu.au/~gregg
The University of Queensland, Queensland 4072 AUSTRALIA
___________________________________________________________________