From owner-freebsd-questions Tue Jan 5 19:26:10 1999 Return-Path: Received: (from majordom@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) id TAA03275 for freebsd-questions-outgoing; Tue, 5 Jan 1999 19:26:10 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG) Received: from guru.phone.net (guru.phone.net [209.157.82.120]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) with SMTP id TAA03263 for ; Tue, 5 Jan 1999 19:26:06 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from mwm@phone.net) Received: (qmail 27443 invoked by uid 100); 6 Jan 1999 03:25:37 -0000 Received: from localhost (sendmail-bs@127.0.0.1) by localhost with SMTP; 6 Jan 1999 03:25:37 -0000 Date: Tue, 5 Jan 1999 19:25:37 -0800 (PST) From: Mike Meyer To: questions@FreeBSD.ORG cc: Greg Lehey Subject: Re: Printed man pages (was: Looking for the best webmaster.) In-Reply-To: <3692CFEE.3AA5@echidna.com> Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Sender: owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG 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.