Re: Debian glossary?
On Monday 30 April 2018 09:06:09 Richard Owlett wrote:
> On 04/30/2018 07:23 AM, rhkramer@gmail.com wrote:
> > On Monday, April 30, 2018 07:46:01 AM Richard Owlett wrote:
> >> Debian documentation NOT written for hoi polloi.
> >
> > ...
> >
> >> Man pages by their nature/purpose assume a certain level of
> >> expertise. They can be daunting for the uninitiated.
> >>
> >> Comments?
> >
> > True. Have you read one or more general introductions to Linux (I
> > have none to suggest at the momen).
>
> Yeah, but not recently.
> You just reminded me that I have ~1500 pages of dusty dead trees
> available.
>
> > Man pages are (or were, at least) intended to be more reminders for
> > people that have at least a basic understanding of the command (or
> > subject) rather than a tool to learn about it from scratch.
>
> PREACH it brother. I've made similar comments in the past.
> The problem on this list is that newbies are often told
> "*READ THE MANUAL!*"
> as if it were a panacea.
>
> > (When I switched from Windows to LInux, I found it very frustrating
> > until I read several introductions to Linux (of various sorts,
> > including at least skimming some thick books full of commands), and,
> > I joined a local LUG.)
>
> I've followed a similar path abandoning WinXP for Squeeze.
> The local LUG folded before I retired a decade ago. Never had a chance
> to attend any meetings as they were on weekday evenings and I worked
> graveyard shift. The nearest LUG's I know of are ~200 miles away (I
> live in RURAL S.W. Missouri where individual species of livestock
> outnumber people ;)
>
> A partial solution might include "Summer of Documentation" projects
> along side of "Summer of Code".
Hear! Hear!! As a 20 year veteran of linux for the main stuff here at the
coyote.den, I won't say exclusively linux because there were other
machines, still are, and they run a simplified unix too, Nitros-9, but
none of them ran windows longer than to note that it too was broken,
usually detected within a day or so of acquireing the machine.
What I'm driving at is the message from on high, to those writing man
pages for everything but bash, and even that can be less than ideal,
seem to have been given orders that a man page is at maximum, 2 screen
sized pages. And that often doesn't give room to adequately cover what
a given utility can do. Every option should have an example and its
results. The recommendation to get the full story via info/pinfo is a
running joke as those files appear to be made by just copying the man
page into the info format. If you want to do a man-page, do it right and
cover it all. Or collaborate with someone that can write it well.
My $0.02 on the subject. But adjust its worth by the inflation since
1934.
--
Cheers, Gene Heskett
--
"There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty:
soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order."
-Ed Howdershelt (Author)
Genes Web page <http://geneslinuxbox.net:6309/gene>
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