Re: Where do you RTFM ?

[Carel Fellinger <cfelling@iae.nl>]

On Mon, Dec 24, 2001 at 08:38:49PM -0800, Karsten M. Self wrote:
> on Tue, Dec 25, 2001 at 02:44:17AM +0100, Carel Fellinger (cfelling@iae.nl) wrote:
> > On Mon, Dec 24, 2001 at 03:07:41PM -0800, Karsten M. Self wrote:
> > ...
> > > I ***DESPISE*** info.  The pinfo alternative helps somewhat, but the
> > > basic concept still sucks.  It should be scrapped for a searchable
> > > format based on HTML, XHTML, or preferably something like DocBook
> > > capable of creating multiple output formats.
> > 
> > I don't get this, just as I don't understand people bashing Stallman.
> > What is it in the program that is so horrible to ***DESPISE*** it?
> 
...all of Karsten's objections snipped

Help, I didn't mean to start a war,
I was only surprised by the vehement nature of your dislikes, but
I think I see. The main problem you and others have with info are:

1) you don't no the keys to use
2) the FSF put a ban on manpages

Let me start with 2. I personally don't like the deprication of man
pages either.  It is a good place to lookup syntax, options and the
like.  For deeper insight a suplementairy format like info is better
suited, but nothing beats a manpage if you only have to lookup the
name of an option [okee program --help]. But man bash is a nightmare.
Best would be if the man pages could be derived from the info pages,
skipping much of the deeper stuff.

The anwser to 1 is simple: learn it;)  (<--- note there is a smily there)

For search you might try the vi-like / (be aware that ? is bound to
help)  The nice thing of the search is that it's a multi page and even
a multi file search.  So unlike web pages, the search is not restricted
to the currently viewed page, but covers all of the info document.

Or use i (and ,) to search the index, almost like using a real book:)

-- 
groetjes, carel