Re: The Info v. Man War of 2001 (was Re: Where do you RTFM ?)

[Bud Rogers <budr@sirinet.net>]

On Tuesday 25 December 2001 16:52 pm, Henrik Enberg wrote:

> But none of the current browsers I'm aware of has the index and
> searching facilities that info has.  When I'm stuck with html
> documentation I'm always extremely annoyed about how hard it is to find
> what I'm looking for.

Me too.   And when I'm stuck with info documentation I am often 
extremely annoyed about how hard it is to find what I'm looking for.  I 
don't think that is an info vs html issue.  I think it is a problem not of 
the document format or protocol, but of the structure of the document 
itself.  The problem is not the tool used to produce the document 
but the person producing the document.

In defense of info I would say this: it predates html.  AFAIK it was the 
first widely known or used hypertext documentation protocol.  In criticism 
of info I would say this: it predates html.  AFAICT it hasn't changed a 
bit.  We have learned a quite a bit about hypertext since info was 
developed.  Info was a marvel in its day, but it is IMHO simply obsolete.

Now I'm not trying to defend html in particular, although well written 
html documentation can be very nice to read and quite intuitive to 
navigate.  So too can info, for that matter.  I would much prefer well 
written, well structured documentation in some more universal format, like 
docbook, which can produce output to suit the reader's preference.  Those 
who prefer html or postscript or pdf or plain text or even info for that 
matter, can read the docs in the format they prefer.  That's what I'd like 
to see.

-- 
Bud Rogers <budr@sirinet.net>
All things in moderation.  And not too much moderation either.