Date: Tue, 5 Jan 1999 19:25:37 -0800 (PST) From: Mike Meyer <mwm@phone.net> To: questions@FreeBSD.ORG Cc: Greg Lehey <grog@lemis.com> Subject: Re: Printed man pages (was: Looking for the best webmaster.) Message-ID: <Pine.BSF.4.05.9901051917101.25797-100000@guru.phone.net> In-Reply-To: <3692CFEE.3AA5@echidna.com>
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On Tue, 5 Jan 1999, Graeme Tait wrote: > Greg Lehey wrote: > > The general consensus is that the man pages are a waste of space, and > > they make the book too heavy. The next edition won't have them. If > > anybody has strong feelings about this, please let me know. > > I love 'em - great for reading in bed or on public transport! In some > cases, it's really hard to understand the on-screen versions, what with > scrolling back and forth between the command list, option explanations, > examples, notes, etc. (take man tar or man ftp for instance). Personally, I'm ambivalent. I like manuals in hardcopy, and regularly print them out. On the other hand, I mostly use man pages as a reference, checking options, etc. But some man pages are really manuals in disguise. However, when Usenix did the BSD man page - oh so long ago - they seemed to sell fairly well. So possibly bundling turning the man pages into a companion volume and selling the FreeBSD book both standalone and with bundled? I still have my copy of the 4.3BSD edition, and the one thing that leaps out instantly is that they are spiral bound - meaning they lie flat. If the previous volume didn't lie flat, that would greatly reduce the utility of the printed manual pages. <mike To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
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