On Tue, Jun 13, 2023 at 1:05 PM segaloco via COFF <coff@tuhs.org> wrote:

The permuted index is surprisingly useful in this regard but isn't always there in manpage sources, you'd have to generate it.

Indeed. @Doug do you know who was the brilliant person that came up with that tool and built the first UNIX PTX? I always felt they should be lauded for that piece of work!

It was something that when I first learned about UNIX that I did like. I was primarily coming from TOPS and TSS, and UNIX was strange when I first saw it -- cat instead of print or type, of course, being the first roadblock. But when I found the PTX was one of the first times that "light dawned on marble head."

I saw UNIX long before "learn" was released, but I certainly had helped enough new users by the time it was available that the "learn" tool, a printed copy of the man pages, and PTX were where I told "newbies" to start.