On Fri, Jun 18, 2021 at 09:20:56PM +0530, Susmita/Rajib wrote: > The subject line is being amended to add the word "Online " before > "... Debian Man pages ..." for the thread at: > https://lists.debian.org/debian-user/2021/06/msg00432.html, continued > till https://lists.debian.org/debian-user/2021/06/msg00438.html, to > further clarify confusion of rhkramer <r***@gmail.com>, who privately > communicated, and for Jonathan Dowland <j***@debian.org>, who showed > interest on the topic. I also hope that with this Email I shall also > be able to address the confusions inadvertently caused to Mr. David > Wright <de***@lio***.uk>,. > > The Drive Folder for a sample Man file and an attempt at pictorial > analysis of a sample command: > https://bit.ly/Apt_readingManPages > > An analysis of the Drive File : DebianApt-get.txt > > https://manpages.debian.org/buster/apt/apt-get.8.en.html > > apt-get [-asqdyfmubV] [-o=config_string] [-c=config_file] [-t=target_release] > > Please look at the parts: > Let > A = apt-get > B = [-asqdyfmubV] > C = [-o=config_string] > D = [-c=config_file] > E = [-t=target_release] > > An apt-get command is a Text String formed by one particular choice of > all the options available, of each of A, B, C, D and E, with a space > in between. > > Say, in abstraction, a Text-String formed by, say: > Aₕ Bₖ Cₘ Dₙ Eₚ, where each of h,k,m,n and p is any one of all the > options available for each of them individually. > > For example, one code-line could be A₁ B₂ C₅ D₆ E₁₂, as an illustration. > > I was just trying to say this illustratively for writers (without a > general mathematical background) who would help edit the code lines, > by the svg picture. > > No authorisation required. Please have all the files downloaded to > your local HDD and then use EOG (or any other image viewer you are > comfortable with) for viewing the images, and plain text reader like > leafpad to read the text files. > > Ideally, if your browser if properly set up, you need not download. > You could view/read files from your browser-tab itself. > > I use Mozilla Firefox. But for any Mozilla forked web-browser like > Google Chrome or Chromium, operations are similar. > > A GUI user would usually click the link on the Email (Gmail) Tab. If > settings are standard on the web-browser, the link shall open on a > separate Tab. > > My proposal is, by a specific example, for the Debian Apt Man Online Page, > Let M be The Debian Apt Man Online Webpage. > i.e., M = https://manpages.debian.org/buster/apt/apt.8.en.html > > Then my proposal: > > M = M + Examples of all the representative combinations of code-lines > related to Command, at the bottom, like my file (i have, for > illustration, presented pictorially the scheme, whereas what's > required are all example/representative code lines, into rows of code > lines, with, if required, one line/phrase explanations) > > Pictorially illustrated on the Drive folder. > > Best, > Rajib > > I honestly couldn't decode this message but I have been following this thread. If I understand correctly what I think Rajib wants is: 1) when a package is added to debian's repo, some automation which looks at the package, determines if it has man pages, and for each of those man pages, create a corresponding wiki page in a debian owned man page wiki. 2) somehow automatically patch the man page to include a link to said wiki page. (note, this will be hard). Maybe some automation could be created to create these wiki pages. But I see problems. Packages change, become obsolete, sometimes get renamed. Even command names change over time. It's a little odd for Debian to host a documentation wiki for upstream tools. The package maintainers would need to look after the wiki page that corresponds to the package they are maintaining. Not everyone is going to be happy with more work. Even if they are not the ones writing it, they will need to be aware of it and if things change, tweak it. It seems like Rajib is looking for something at a higher level, not at the level of Debian, but at the level of Unix/Linux itself, as in, how to document things you've worked on in a standard way in a globally editable/extendable forum. Wikis tend to be GUI based and man pages are text files used generally at the command propt. The closest text based thing I can think of is the gnu info system which is/was meant for this sort of thing but is not very widely used. It predates markdown and wikis by many years. I'm all for better documentation but I don't see how Debian can be the documentation repository for all tools that just happen to be Debian packages. It feels like you should try to start a sort of "unixepedia" thing like wikipedia and then one by one try to get people to create pages for their tools. Then, eventually people will put links into their man pages pointing at this global resource. That's my best opinion after reading all your posts. Michael Grant
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