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On Friday 06 February 2009 06:40:01 Stroller wrote: |
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> > If the problem is "contents" then that's nothing to do with |
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> > man, but with whomever made (or didn't made) the page. |
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> |
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> Yes, but there's a problem with the MAJORITY of contents, perhaps of |
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> the majority of people writing manpages? It just seems to be a culture |
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> of the way man pages are written. They make perfect sense only with |
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> experience - don't get me wrong, I love 'em and at least to a degree I |
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> think that's how it should be. |
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Man pages are mostly written as reference documents. Like technical specs, |
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they tend to list the capabilities of the app without giving the "bigger |
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picture overview" as that is assumed to be known. |
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They are not teaching aids or howtos. For that you need classes, dummy guides |
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etc. When you've learned how man pages work, then you can use the man pages. |
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But the man pages don't tell you how the man pages work. |
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-- |
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alan dot mckinnon at gmail dot com |