Bug#238958: doesn't use the term manpage consistently
On Sun, Mar 21, 2004 at 12:03:45PM -0500, Branden Robinson wrote:
> I prefer "manpage" because, as a single term, it's more obvious that
> it's jargon.
But "manpage" doesn't appear in any lists of online jargon that I can
find. Running "dict manpage" turns up nothing. On the other hand,
"dict man" does produce at least one reference to Unix manual pages.
> I think it would be helpful to newcomers to not tempt them to
> conclude that "man pages" have anything to do with "men", and I
> suspect they're less likely do so when presented with a single term.
I strongly disagree. I think newcomers will first have trouble
parsing the word (it looks like it's related to "rampage" to me), and
then, once they do parse it (if they do) as two words jammed together,
they'll *still* be stuck trying to figure out what a "man page" is. I
think we can eliminate that first level of confusion by avoiding the
horrid neologism in the first place.
Anyway, I'm not convinced that newbies are the primary audience for
policy.
> If we're going to use two words, we should probably say "manual
> page" or "reference page".
The editor in me (channelling my mother, the professional
writer/editor) wants to agree with you. But the programmer/techie in
me says that "man page" is more specific, and therefore preferable, in
the context of Unixlike systems. If I see "man page", I don't go
looking for a book or an HTML document somewhere; I know it's a
reference to man(1). Still, I'd accept "manual page" as a compromise.
> However, I think consistency throughout the policy manual is more
> important [...]
Fully agreed.
cheers
--
Chris Waters | Pneumonoultra- osis is too long
xtifr@debian.org | microscopicsilico- to fit into a single
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