[plug] Man pages

[Christian]

On Tue, 16 Feb 1999, Greg Gamble wrote:

> 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.

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

I agree with all this too (I'm sure many others do also).  I think every
non-trivial program should have a man page just so you know where to begin
with it - there should be a well-defined baseline with documentation and,
right now, man pages are it.  Of course, HTML has it's own uses too.

BTW, anyone else like/use the GNOME help browser? (KDE has one too).
Basically all the man and info pages etc. all collected together with
references to other related pages turned into HTML-like links.

Regards,

Christian.

============================================================================
"Those who do not understand Unix are condemned to reinvent it, poorly."
                					-- Henry Spencer