Date: Sun, 7 Jul 1996 10:15:07 GMT From: James Raynard <fqueries@jraynard.demon.co.uk> To: tcg@ime.net Cc: questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Ports suggestion Message-ID: <199607071015.KAA01396@jraynard.demon.co.uk> In-Reply-To: <31DF5123.97B@ime.net> (message from Gary Chrysler on Sun, 07 Jul 1996 01:54:43 -0400)
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> > "man xxxxx" is a standard Unix-ism for finding out how to use > > something; Unix programs generally assume that the user knows how to > > use Unix :-) > > > > Is it not in the best intrest of FreeBSD to encurage New users? > We all had/have to start someplace! Very true, although hopefully you'll soon get a little further along the road :-) > A simple 1 line: `See man xxxx(x) for documentation`, would point > the new user in the right direction. > xxxx(x) is not always easy to determine with some packages. Some programs don't have a simple xxxx(x), unfortunately. I like the way INN sets out its man pages, so you can start with innd(8) and then move around as the fancy takes you, but not everyone thinks out their man pages as carefully as this. Not to mention GNU, with their "man pages are obsolete" attitude. > New users (at least I do) spend more time trying to find > documentation then reading installing and configuring the package. > Not a way to encurage people! Depends - when I as in that position, I often found myself stumbling across interesting things in my searches (until I found out what 'apropos' and 'whatis' did - try 'whatis whatis' :-) > Apache, is nice, It tells you where to find help. albeit worthless > if one does not have a connection to the internet! Actually this is something that really annoys me with certain programs. Why couldn't they provide an .html copy of their online help with the code? (It's not as if it's difficult or involves giving away any trade secrets). Not everyone has a permanent Internet connection paid for by someone else! > There is mention of the pkg_* commands, suffecient I belive! > My point was to stay one step ahead of the user by pointing to > the documentation. The pointer to the documentation could be > displayed in the pkg_info infofile. > Some do, some don't, All should! I'm all in favour of consistency - at the moment this is left to the discretion of whoever created the package (this is the price you pay for having people work for you for nothing - if you start trying to lay down rules, they immediately lose interest). > I would think this would also be good for the Team by helping to > prevent some of these repetious questions. And good for the readers by preventing repetitious answers :-) Unfortunately this is all a bit academic as far as 2.1.5 is concerned (the packages were all compiled last week), but maybe something can be done for 2.2. -- James Raynard, Edinburgh, Scotland james@jraynard.demon.co.uk http://www.freebsd.org/~jraynard/
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