From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on inbox.vuxu.org X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.0 required=5.0 tests=MAILING_LIST_MULTI, RCVD_IN_DNSWL_NONE autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 Received: (qmail 27426 invoked from network); 1 Aug 2021 17:32:10 -0000 Received: from minnie.tuhs.org (45.79.103.53) by inbox.vuxu.org with ESMTPUTF8; 1 Aug 2021 17:32:10 -0000 Received: by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix, from userid 112) id D41609CA90; Mon, 2 Aug 2021 03:32:06 +1000 (AEST) Received: from minnie.tuhs.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 68A0C9CA63; Mon, 2 Aug 2021 03:31:37 +1000 (AEST) Received: by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix, from userid 112) id 66C289CA63; Mon, 2 Aug 2021 03:31:34 +1000 (AEST) Received: from fedora (fourwinds.com [63.64.179.162]) by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 067079CA60 for ; Mon, 2 Aug 2021 03:31:33 +1000 (AEST) Received: from fourwinds.com (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by fedora (8.16.1/8.15.2) with ESMTP id 171HVWiH3452011 for ; Sun, 1 Aug 2021 10:31:32 -0700 Received: from localhost (jon@localhost) by fourwinds.com (8.16.1/8.15.2/Submit) with ESMTP id 171HVWPG3452003 for ; Sun, 1 Aug 2021 10:31:32 -0700 Message-Id: <202108011731.171HVWPG3452003@fourwinds.com> From: Jon Steinhart To: tuhs@minnie.tuhs.org In-reply-to: <20210801185137.0a4822b1@moon> References: <20210731142533.69caf929@moon> <20210801185137.0a4822b1@moon> Comments: In-reply-to Michael Siegel message dated "Sun, 01 Aug 2021 18:51:37 +0200." MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8" Content-ID: <3451996.1627839091.1@localhost> Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Date: Sun, 01 Aug 2021 10:31:31 -0700 X-JON-SPAM: local delivery Subject: Re: [TUHS] Systematic approach to command-line interfaces X-BeenThere: tuhs@minnie.tuhs.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.26 Precedence: list List-Id: The Unix Heritage Society mailing list List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: tuhs-bounces@minnie.tuhs.org Sender: "TUHS" Michael Siegel writes: > Being able to provide interactive help is exactly what the person who > suggested grammar-based parsing to me was working on. I hadn't even > thought about that at first. But given my recent investigation into > built-in command documentation on Unix-like systems, I tend to think > this would be a great enhancement – if it was implemented with a > strict focus on not getting in the way, i.e., the user should be able > to switch it off completely, and search-as-you-type would be opt-in, if > provided at all. > > > -- > Michael While I agree with you in theory, I'm dubious about how it would work in practice. Sorry if it sounds like I've lost faith with my profession but I'm trying to accept reality. Where would such documentation come from? Not wanting to reopen old flame wars, but the fragmentation of the documentation system where some things are man pages, some are info pages, some are random HTML files, some are only online, some things having no documentation at all except maybe a help message, and much of that have no actual content, is reality. Who's going to write more documentation, and how is it going to be kept consistent with other documentation? Is your help system going to be yet another fragment? Also, we seem to be well into a "Farenheight 451" world now where a vast number of people communicate only by photos and video. Writing seems to be deprecated. I don't have confidence that any documentation would be useful even if people wrote it. As a current example, I'm having trouble with a btrfs filesystem and I can't say that the btrfs-check manual page contains any useful content. Maybe since Microsoft "AI" is now going to write code for, not sure what to call them, programmers doesn't seem right any more, maybe it'll write their documentation too? I guess what I'm saying is that it sounds like you are having some good thoughts on a technical solution that I think will fail without also having a social solution. If you could somehow extract your help info from man pages without creating a whole new documentation system it might work in the few cases where there are good manual pages. Wow I sound grumpy this morning. Jon