Re: HTML instead of GNU Info?
On Sun, Jun 13, 1999 at 19:45:30 +0200, Anders Arnholm wrote:
> The big problem with texi, and to some extent the current SGML-DTD's are
> that there are no easy way to extract a nice looking correct man page. Man
> is still the best and i.m.h.o fastest way to get a overview of the options
> in a program.
There is a big difference between reference documentation (i.e. where you
can look up things you mostly know already ("what was the switch to get foo
to fnurble?"); and tutorial documentation ("What is foo, and how do I start
using it?"): compare the "bison" manpage to the "bison" info documentation.
Reference documentation leans itself to a strong, fixed structure (title,
summary, options etc.), like the man format uses.
Tutorial documentation seldomly has such a fixed structure, and a less rigid
format (like texi and an SGML DTD like DocBook) is desirable for it.
It is possible to impose a stricter structure to a part of an otherwise less
rigid documentation format, and use that structure for automatic extraction
for manpages.
With texinfo, there is a convention to have a "invoking" or "invocation"
node that lists the options, so "info <program> invo" brings you to an
option summary in many cases.
Ray
--
UNFAIR Term applied to advantages enjoyed by other people which we tried
to cheat them out of and didn't manage. See also DISHONESTY, SNEAKY,
UNDERHAND and JUST LUCKY I GUESS.
- The Hipcrime Vocab by Chad C. Mulligan
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