Quoting [EMAIL PROTECTED] ([EMAIL PROTECTED]): > In a message dated 1/26/99 7:34:37 PM Central Standard Time, > [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: > > I'm beginning to think I'm talking to a brick wall on this, but I do have a > few more comments...
That's a bit unfair. I'm quite happy to cease this conversation so you can talk to thin air instead. [snipped comments on points I don't necessarily agree with] > * I, and I am positive I'm not alone, would be willing to download an extra > (optional) disk at install time so I could get a basic man set, with the full > package being available as it is now - just so I wouldn't be completely in the > dark once the install program completed. I'm really trying to understand what you're saying, believe me. > once the install program completed. If, by this, you mean when dselect finishes the first time (Have fun!), then, as far as I can see, you should have man-db and many manpages available, viz. ii makedev 1.6-32 Creates special device files in /dev. ii man-db 2.3.10-65 Display the on-line manual. ii manpages 1.19-1 Man pages about using a Linux system. ii manpages-dev 1.19-1 Linux-development man pages. ii mawk 1.3.3-2 a pattern scanning and text proces... and, of course, all the manpages dealing with the packages installed, which are contained in the packages themselves. If you mean earlier than this, I think I need clarification to understand exactly how you mean to use them, or expect others to. It has always seemed to me that the HOWTOs are more useful than the manpages at this stage. Most of the things that one would normally do with a command (for example, adduser for the first ordinary user) are wrapped up by the installation script, until dselect exits. > Frankly, I don't see why there is such strong resistance to discussing this. > I understand it's policy to include only required packages on the boot disks; > fine, however policies should be flexible or at least allow for consideration > on modifications. It would make things ALOT easier for us new folk to have > something to reference early on - although I'm getting the feeling from > responses to my posts on this issue that some of us aren't really interested > in making Debian a bit more newbie friendly, and that's a shame. I don't see any resistance to, or lack of, discussion. But what I hear you saying is "Why isn't man in the base system? I want it to be. If you don't want it to be, then you're inflexible and uninterested in newbies." What I would prefer to hear is "I felt I needed information about foo" or I needed "man bar" when I was at such-and-such during installation. Am I being fair? If you really must have man pages as background before beginning to install Debian at all (and I can understand that), well they are available in many places and formats all across the internet. You may have come across them if you've ever used gnu software that's been ported to other platforms like DOS. Cheers, -- Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Tel: +44 1908 653 739 Fax: +44 1908 655 151 Snail: David Wright, Earth Science Dept., Milton Keynes, England, MK7 6AA Disclaimer: These addresses are only for reaching me, and do not signify official stationery. Views expressed here are either my own or plagiarised.
