From owner-freebsd-newbies@FreeBSD.ORG Fri Dec 24 03:57:03 2004 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-newbies@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id EB2E716A4CE for ; Fri, 24 Dec 2004 03:57:03 +0000 (GMT) Received: from mail1.WPI.EDU (mail1.WPI.EDU [130.215.36.102]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 573D243D1D for ; Fri, 24 Dec 2004 03:57:03 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from emerson@WPI.EDU) Received: from mcafee.wpi.edu (mcafee.WPI.EDU [130.215.36.86]) by mail1.WPI.EDU (8.13.2/8.13.2) with SMTP id iBO3v06G013113; Thu, 23 Dec 2004 22:57:00 -0500 Received: from smtp.WPI.EDU(130.215.36.186) by mcafee.wpi.edu via csmap id dc339c1e_555f_11d9_9856_00304811e63a_20733; Thu, 23 Dec 2004 22:56:58 -0500 (EST) Received: from ccc1.wpi.edu (ccc1.WPI.EDU [130.215.36.142]) by smtp.WPI.EDU (8.13.2/8.13.2) with ESMTP id iBO3uub5013773; Thu, 23 Dec 2004 22:56:56 -0500 Received: from ccc1.wpi.edu (localhost.localdomain [127.0.0.1]) by ccc1.wpi.edu (8.13.2/8.13.2) with ESMTP id iBO3uuru011497; Thu, 23 Dec 2004 22:56:56 -0500 Received: from localhost (emerson@localhost) by ccc1.wpi.edu (8.13.2/8.13.2) with ESMTP id iBO3uuBL011494; Thu, 23 Dec 2004 22:56:56 -0500 X-Authentication-Warning: ccc1.wpi.edu: emerson owned process doing -bs Date: Thu, 23 Dec 2004 22:56:56 -0500 (EST) From: Scott Emerson Longley To: Nikolas Britton In-Reply-To: <41CB5560.3090102@nbritton.org> Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII cc: Xian cc: freebsd-newbies@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Time to shut down this list? X-BeenThere: freebsd-newbies@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: Gathering place for new users List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Fri, 24 Dec 2004 03:57:04 -0000 On Thu, 23 Dec 2004, Nikolas Britton wrote: > > > Speaking of "help" I have always though this sould at least be an > > alise to man (or "man man", or "man %foo")... but what I really want a > > clone of the MSDOS 6.xx Help system of the same name, when you typed > > in help with no args. it would load a "hypertext" curses program that > > listed all the commands (like "whatis") and then you could select a > > command for detail info about it. anyways... in the DOS world you > > always type'd "help, "help foo", or "foo /?" for help so for most > > people new to unix and freebsd whatis and man are unknow to them. > > > I may have a simple solution to this: create a new man page named > "help", in this man page is a brief (newbie oriented) one page guide on > how to use the man pages and how to find commands to use (whatis / > apropos, btw who came up with that name? I could not remember it if my > life depended on it). this man page would then be aliased as "help". > what do yea think? IMO, that's a great idea. Actually, OpenBSD does it, so it might be a useful example. ( http://www.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/man.cgi?query=help ) Not having a "help" command was a frustration to me a few years back when I had just started fooling with Unices, so I would like to see the idea catch on for the sake of all those who are in that position now. -Scott Longley