From mboxrd@z Thu Jan  1 00:00:00 1970
From: lyndon@orthanc.ca (Lyndon Nerenberg)
Date: Tue, 19 Sep 2017 17:47:42 -0700
Subject: [TUHS] Another "craft" discussion topic - mindless tool
 proliferation
In-Reply-To: <20170919233525.k3otv5as6xi2rqht@thunk.org>
References: <201709191701.v8JH1vck032168@darkstar.fourwinds.com>
 <20170919233525.k3otv5as6xi2rqht@thunk.org>
Message-ID: <91641FC6-4CF5-4682-B8C3-8BB3DCCB208C@orthanc.ca>


> On Sep 19, 2017, at 4:35 PM, Theodore Ts'o <tytso at mit.edu> wrote:
> 
> If you take a look at how perl handles its man pages, with 188 man
> pages in section 1:

... you quickly recognize the difference between a manpage (i.e. reference page) and a user manual.  Perl's (and other's) attempts to pack a 200 page user guide into a block of manpages is a misuse of what manpages represent.

texinfo was a good move in the direction towards online, cross-referenced, user documentation.  But so often that lead to manpages that consisted of the single line "see the texinfo doc"; the documentation authors completely missing the point.

--lyndon