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. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
