Re: Specify man section name at runtime

[Ingo Schwarze <schwarze@usta.de>]

Hi Cameron,

Cameron Katri wrote on Sun, Oct 03, 2021 at 01:49:18PM -0400:

> I want to add the ability to specify the man section name

I suspect you are talking about the volume titles (for example,
"General Commands Manual", "System Calls Manual", etc.), not about
section names (for example, "SYNOPSIS", "DESCRIPTION", "SEE ALSO", etc.).

> at runtime, instead of at compile time in msec.in.

Why?

What is the use case requiring that?

> But I wanted to see how I should implement it.
> I was thinking as a setting in man.conf,

Hard to judge without knowing what it is needed for, but at first sight,
it does not look like something that system administrators would need to
configure on a machine-by-machine basis.

> or as a command line argument,

That does not sound very convincing either.  Why would any user
type in long titles on the command line?

> or both.

When it comes to new features, less is usually more.  A new feature
needs a very good justification.

Perfection isn't when nothing more can be added, but when nothing
unimportant can be taken away.

> I wanted to know if this is something you would be interested in
> actually incorporating

So far, given the total lack of any justification, no, i am not (yet)
interested.

If you can explain a very convincing use case, the level of interest
might grow.

> and what it's interface should look like before I start working
> on anything.

Before it is possible to even start considering user interface design
for *any* feature, the critical question to consider is: what is the
purpose of the feature?  What will it be used for, and by which
kinds of users?

Yours,
  Ingo
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