From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Message-ID: <9ad360a7d8786a5676d997025cb7f20b@plan9.bell-labs.com> Date: Tue, 6 Dec 2005 10:57:42 -0500 From: jmk@plan9.bell-labs.com To: 9fans@cse.psu.edu Subject: Re: [9fans] Capitalization in man pages. In-Reply-To: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Topicbox-Message-UUID: ba67b4f0-ead0-11e9-9d60-3106f5b1d025 Seems to me you could satisfy both your desire for consistency and that of being a frustrated writer by writing the man page that details how to write a man page in the accepted Plan 9 style. --jim On Tue Dec 6 08:03:30 EST 2005, lyndon@orthanc.ca wrote: > > On Dec 6, 2005, at 4:32 AM, Charles Forsyth wrote: > > >> But most importantly, they try to ensure > >> consistency throughout the documentation set. > > > > so does Plan 9; it just doesn't use your rules. > > I'm curious about this comment. man(6) describes the macros it makes > available, but it says nothing about how they should be used in the > context of writing the man page itself. There is no mention > whatsoever of style or usage. (USG derived UNIXen suffered this > malady as well, to varying degrees.) > > So how is an author to know how to write something that is congruent > with the current style? They can read existing man pages and try to > glean from them, but inevitably errors will creep in. And those > errors will become input to the next generation of authors, and so it > goes. > > Wasn't it Steve Johnson who did the original sweep through the UNIX > man pages, editing out inconsistent usage and rationalizing the > layout? In the 1970s? > > --lyndon > > P.S. And no, I am not in any way pissing on Rob's work!