Re: HTML instead of GNU Info?
Hi,
>>"Karl" == Karl M Hegbloom <karlheg@cathcart.sysc.pdx.edu> writes:
John> Right, which is the whole problem. You can't generate nice
John> output from the package as-is.
Karl> I think that's deliberate.
I think this is a bug. Paper docs are often so much more
convenient.
Karl> People waste too much paper on things they print out on
Karl> ungreppables and then only read once.
I thought the idea was to give the users choice (or else why
the heck are we distributing vi ;-). If I choose to give up the
search capabilities, why are you restricting my choice?
Karl> With `info', (or at least man pages) you've got the docs right
Karl> under your fingertips inside your text editor or from a
Karl> command shell. You can search for a regexp in an info
Karl> document by pressing the `s' key and typing a search
Karl> expression. It will recurse down the document's whole
Karl> heirarchial info tree looking for your findit. You can put
Karl> the cursor on a function call, and use `info-look' or `cperl'
Karl> to find it in the libc or perl5 info almost instantly, with no
Karl> mousing around digging for menu clickers.[1] If you can look
Karl> it up quickly like that, it is less likely to break your train
Karl> of thought and distract you from your coding task.
Karl> (<gripe/... to configure Apache, since it didn't work right
Karl> when you try to search, or to wait around to find that `kfm'
Karl> sits forever spinning the lone gear rather than showing you
Karl> the man page it took five minutes to learn the URL to./ Emacs
Karl> Makes A Computer Super.[2])
And I find spendng too much time on the computer gives me
migraines. Also, I find being able to lay down 10-20 pages on
my large dining table makes it easier (and faster for me to corelate
data. I can use large color mrker annotations to color code and help
integrate data.
Just because you find the computer easy to use does not mean
that the whole world does.
Karl> With HTML you've got to start a browser and to search HTML, you need
Karl> a web server with CGI and glimpse or suchlike. And there's no cursor
Karl> to put on it for dictionary/man lookups or paste-ins. Thus, HTML is
Karl> much less conveinient, and inferior, IMO. Yes, `info' could be made
Karl> to look nicer on the screen... on a GUI. Many of us need both X11
Karl> and terminal access to manuals.
I agree - HTML is worse, in my opinion, as well. But I prefer
well printed paper docs to online ones when learning a new product; I
prefer online docs when I want a quick reference. I would think that
Karl> You can't search a printed page. Get a laptop. Quit killing trees
Karl> and go sit under one.
Send me the money, And I will. If you send me email, I shall
tell you where you can transfer money for mey to buy the laptop.
manoj
--
Q: What's a WASP's idea of open-mindedness? A: Dating a Canadian.
Manoj Srivastava <srivasta@debian.org> <http://www.debian.org/%7Esrivasta/>
Key C7261095 fingerprint = CB D9 F4 12 68 07 E4 05 CC 2D 27 12 1D F5 E8 6E
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