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From: Jon Steinhart <jon@fourwinds.com>
To: The Eunuchs Hysterical Society <tuhs@tuhs.org>
Subject: Re: [TUHS] earliest Unix roff
Date: Mon, 16 Sep 2019 14:54:49 -0700	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <201909162154.x8GLsnOs011718@darkstar.fourwinds.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <20190916214832.GW2046@mcvoy.com>

Larry McVoy writes:
>
> I think, someone correct me if I'm wrong, the info stuff was designed
> to handle larger, more complex stuff, with a table of contents, etc.
> Something like perl could fit in one info doc but the perl man page is
> not a thing, it's just a series of pointers to more man pages.

Can't answer you directly on this one, but I prefer the old system of
having man pages and separate documents for longer things.  I still
have old notebooks full of papers on lex, yacc, and so on.

One of the problems with using info for something like perl is that it
doesn't have a useful organization.  There's a difference to me between
a reference manual and a user's guide.  Most of the stuff referenced by
the main perl page is user's guide stuff to me, it's not a reference.

Probably someone knows more than me about all this.  I have always been
under the impression that one read the user's guide to learn about
complicated stuff.  The manual pages were there so that you could find
the right options when you forgot.  Putting every detail about a complex
program into a manual page doesn't feel right to me.

Jon

  reply	other threads:[~2019-09-16 21:55 UTC|newest]

Thread overview: 148+ messages / expand[flat|nested]  mbox.gz  Atom feed  top
2019-09-13  3:20 [TUHS] My EuroBSDcon talk (preview for commentary) Warner Losh
2019-09-13  9:03 ` Branden Robinson
2019-09-13 19:47 ` Clem Cole
2019-09-13 20:02   ` Clem Cole
2019-09-13 20:06     ` Clem Cole
2019-09-13 20:24       ` Jon Steinhart
2019-09-13 20:43         ` Clem Cole
2019-09-13 20:53           ` Diomidis Spinellis
2019-09-13 21:45             ` Clem Cole
2019-09-13 22:13               ` [TUHS] earliest Unix roff Warren Toomey
2019-09-13 22:55                 ` Clem Cole
2019-09-14  2:02                   ` Larry McVoy
2019-09-14  2:44                     ` Warren Toomey
2019-09-15  2:56                       ` U'll Be King of the Stars
2019-09-15  6:54                         ` arnold
2019-09-15  7:01                           ` Dave Horsfall
2019-09-15 16:17                             ` Jon Steinhart
2019-09-15 17:23                               ` Ronald Natalie
2019-09-15 19:48                             ` Clem Cole
2019-09-15 21:16                               ` Dave Horsfall
2019-09-15  7:32                           ` U'll Be King of the Stars
2019-09-15  7:46                             ` arnold
2019-09-15 19:37                           ` Clem Cole
2019-09-16  5:52                             ` arnold
2019-09-16 12:10                               ` Clem Cole
2019-09-16 12:26                                 ` Lars Brinkhoff
2019-09-16 13:42                                   ` Clem Cole
2019-09-16 14:54                                     ` Larry McVoy
2019-09-16 16:09                                     ` Paul Winalski
2019-09-16 22:05                                     ` Dave Horsfall
2019-09-16 22:33                                       ` reed
2019-09-17  0:11                                         ` Dave Horsfall
2019-09-17  0:02                                       ` Nemo Nusquam
2019-09-17  0:21                                         ` Arthur Krewat
2019-09-17 11:12                                         ` Thomas Paulsen
2019-09-17  0:46                                       ` Clem Cole
2019-09-16 13:13                                 ` Chet Ramey
2019-09-16 14:51                                 ` Larry McVoy
2019-09-16 14:57                                   ` Clem Cole
2019-09-16 15:14                                     ` Richard Salz
2019-09-16 15:48                                       ` Ronald Natalie
2019-09-16 16:10                                       ` Larry McVoy
2019-09-16 16:16                                         ` Jon Steinhart
2019-09-16 16:26                                           ` Larry McVoy
2019-09-16 16:31                                             ` Richard Salz
2019-09-16 16:45                                               ` Larry McVoy
2019-09-16 17:19                                                 ` KatolaZ
2019-09-16 17:24                                                   ` Larry McVoy
2019-09-16 17:32                                                     ` Jon Steinhart
2019-09-16 17:35                                                     ` Clem Cole
2019-09-16 17:37                                                   ` Jon Steinhart
2019-09-16 18:09                                                     ` [TUHS] [OT] " KatolaZ
2019-09-16 18:19                                                       ` Jon Steinhart
2019-09-16 18:04                                                   ` [TUHS] " Chet Ramey
2019-09-16 18:19                                                     ` KatolaZ
2019-09-16 23:24                                                     ` Dave Horsfall
2019-09-16 17:24                                                 ` Clem Cole
2019-09-16 17:00                                               ` Clem Cole
2019-09-17 11:20                                         ` Thomas Paulsen
2019-09-16 19:13                                       ` Steffen Nurpmeso
2019-09-16 19:31                                       ` Bakul Shah
2019-09-16 22:35                                     ` Dave Horsfall
2019-09-17  7:53                                   ` arnold
2019-09-17 14:21                                     ` Clem Cole
2019-09-17 15:03                                       ` arnold
2019-09-17 15:58                                     ` Christopher Browne
2019-09-17 18:15                                       ` arnold
2019-09-17 18:32                                         ` Warner Losh
2019-09-18  0:42                                         ` Adam Thornton
2019-09-16 21:42                                 ` Dave Horsfall
2019-09-16 21:48                                   ` Larry McVoy
2019-09-16 21:54                                     ` Jon Steinhart [this message]
2019-09-16 21:59                                       ` Larry McVoy
2019-09-17  5:07                                         ` Lars Brinkhoff
2019-09-16 22:10                                       ` Bakul Shah
2019-09-17  0:16                                   ` Greg 'groggy' Lehey
2019-09-17  0:31                                     ` Jon Steinhart
2019-09-17 12:20                                     ` David
2019-10-05 19:44                                 ` Michael Parson
2019-09-15 19:35                         ` Clem Cole
2019-09-15 20:49                           ` U'll Be King of the Stars
2019-09-16  6:20                             ` arnold
2019-09-16 12:13                               ` Clem Cole
2019-09-16 12:34                                 ` arnold
2019-09-16 14:52                                 ` Larry McVoy
2019-09-17  0:10                               ` [TUHS] O'Reilly groff macros (was: earliest Unix roff) Greg 'groggy' Lehey
2019-09-17  0:51                                 ` Clem Cole
2019-09-17  0:54                                   ` [TUHS] O'Reilly groff macros U'll Be King of the Stars
2019-09-17  1:03                                     ` Clem Cole
2019-09-17  1:41                                     ` Greg 'groggy' Lehey
2019-09-17  1:58                                       ` Clem cole
2019-09-15 19:27                       ` [TUHS] earliest Unix roff Clem Cole
2019-09-15 19:31                         ` Jon Steinhart
2019-09-14  7:35               ` [TUHS] My EuroBSDcon talk (preview for commentary) Diomidis Spinellis
2019-09-13 21:31       ` Clem Cole
2019-09-17 19:29         ` Warner Losh
2019-09-17 20:17           ` Clem Cole
2019-09-17 19:18       ` Warner Losh
2019-09-17 20:13         ` Clem Cole
2019-09-13 20:06     ` Larry McVoy
2019-09-14  6:13   ` Wesley Parish
2019-09-15 21:46 ` Clem Cole
2019-09-15 23:25   ` Bakul Shah
2019-09-15 23:35     ` Clem cole
2019-09-16  1:42     ` Warner Losh
2019-09-16  1:52       ` Clem cole
2019-09-16  2:05         ` George Michaelson
2019-09-16  2:37           ` Bakul Shah
2019-09-16  3:29             ` [TUHS] INed/Rand Editor/Ned [was " Charles H. Sauer
2019-09-16 14:53               ` Clem Cole
2019-09-16 16:16                 ` Warner Losh
2019-09-16 20:21                   ` G. Branden Robinson
2019-09-16 20:47                     ` Jon Steinhart
2019-09-16 22:33                       ` George Michaelson
2019-09-16 23:14                         ` G. Branden Robinson
2019-10-09  1:10                         ` Lyndon Nerenberg
2019-09-16 22:48                       ` [TUHS] better ways and termcap vs. terminfo " G. Branden Robinson
2019-09-17 11:46                     ` [TUHS] INed/Rand Editor/Ned [was Re: My EuroBSDcon talk (preview " Theodore Y. Ts'o
2019-09-17 12:52                       ` G. Branden Robinson
2019-10-09  0:38                   ` Lyndon Nerenberg
2019-09-16  1:31   ` [TUHS] " William Pechter
2019-09-16  1:48     ` Clem cole
2019-09-16  2:24     ` Dave Horsfall
2019-09-16  2:31       ` Toby Thain
2019-09-16  3:36   ` Theodore Y. Ts'o
2019-09-15  2:45 [TUHS] earliest Unix roff Doug McIlroy
2019-09-15 22:07 Doug McIlroy
2019-09-17  0:20 ` Steve Johnson
2019-09-17  1:11   ` Arthur Krewat
2019-09-17  1:17     ` Larry McVoy
2019-09-17  1:26       ` Clem cole
2019-09-17  1:33         ` Larry McVoy
2019-09-17 22:39           ` Dave Horsfall
2019-09-17  1:36         ` Richard Salz
2019-09-17  1:57       ` Bakul Shah
2019-09-17  1:19   ` Bakul Shah
2019-09-19 18:10 Norman Wilson
2019-09-19 18:37 ` Clem Cole
2019-09-19 18:44   ` Jon Steinhart
2019-09-19 19:44 ` Steffen Nurpmeso
2019-09-19 20:38   ` John P. Linderman
2019-09-20 13:41     ` Steffen Nurpmeso
2019-09-20 15:03       ` Steffen Nurpmeso
2019-09-19 20:53 ` Bakul Shah
2019-09-19 18:42 Norman Wilson
2019-09-19 22:42 ` Rob Pike
2019-09-19 22:55   ` Bakul Shah
2019-09-19 18:50 [TUHS] [OT] " Norman Wilson
2019-09-19 19:00 ` Nemo Nusquam
2019-09-19 20:18   ` Larry McVoy
2019-09-19 20:42     ` [TUHS] " Andy Kosela

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