Re: NTP.conf pool vs server

[Joshua Schaeffer <jschaeffer0922@gmail.com>]

On Wed, Jun 7, 2017 at 9:06 AM, Greg Wooledge <wooledg@eeg.ccf.org> wrote:

I largely agree with Gene.  The man pages are incredibly silly.  They
don't tell you how to do the Most Basic Common Thing.  Instead they
talk about "type s and r addresses" and "a preemptable association
is mobilized" and "mobilizes a persistent  symmetric-active  mode
association" and "type b and m addresses" and other such gibberish.

That is one of the ideas behind the info pages. Man pages have always been technically oriented and are generally very focused. They don't really offer context. Now, I'm not saying that info pages accomplish this (some do, some don't), but that was one of the original ideas behind info pages, is to be more real world and comprehensive. There are trade offs to both approaches.

You typically get a dichotomy of groups about man pages and documentation in general. Some people prefer the more technical nature of the man pages, while others find it frustrating. Can be further exacerbated by the fact that people tell other people to RTFM, but even reading a man page top to bottom doesn't help when it actually comes to setting up a piece of software (as you probably experienced yourself).

In general man pages are more helpful when you already understand the software in question and are looking for specific information.

Thanks,

Joshua Schaeffer