Re: Do users know about README.Debian and /usr/share/doc/packagename (Was: libcifpp)
Hi Pierre,
On 2021-10-04 22:18, Pierre Gruet wrote:
> Do you know if users read our manpages? I feel we can expect /some/
> users will type
>
> man command
>
> if something is not working as expected, but for sure not all of them will.
I have few years of experience in teaching administration, programming
and data analysis on Debian. I have the opportunity to peek over the
shoulder at how students work, with their experience ranging from day
one to around two years or so. My samples are quite modest, though.
My experience is that rarely anyone I encounter look at system-provided
files and documentation, be it manpages or PDFs in -doc packages.
Students are used to look up for everything using their favorite search
engines, usually ending up at Stack Exchange or outdated/too up-to-date
web-hosted documentation. Encouragement to use manpages (even when they
are literally at one's fingertips) rarely works. Probably because the
command line environment is overly intimidating for the newcomers.
Of course this is only my experience, and only with the beginners. Just
thought that it might be worth sharing.
As for less subjective analysis, does anyone know whether popcon is able
to detect usage frequencies of individual files?
Best,
Andrius
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