Re: debian how-to
On Mon, Jan 07, 2008 at 01:35:08PM +0100, Michelle Konzack wrote:
> Am 2007-12-31 22:15:46, schrieb Douglas A. Tutty:
> > I also dislike huge long man pages. To me, man pages should be for a
> > bit more help than foo --help; a summary. The main doc should be in
> > plain html for viewing with lynx or something.
>
> So you hate the manpages to bash, fvwm, gcc, zgv, fetchmail or mc?
>
> Hmmm... weird! I love it, since this are real manpages and HTML
> pages can not easy searched...
>
HTML pages (not just html versions of man pages) can have a TOC, you can
search with / the same as you can with less in a man page. I use Lynx
mostly for things like the shorewall-doc, tldp HOWTOs, ntpd docs, etc.
Things like the bash man page are too much info for one single page,
rsync would be easier to read in a different format.
The man pages started out as an online version of printed books. In
printed books, you can keep a thumb in one spot, turn a couple of pages
and flip back and forth. Can't do that easily in a normal man page with
less. Online docs should use the most user-friendly format possible.
Since I can do everything in lynx that I can in man/less, yet if I go to
Konqueror I can split the screen and have separate sections, it would
make sense to me if man pages were in html with toc and hyperlinks.
Doug.
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