On Wed, 11 Feb 2004, Monique Y. Herman wrote : � Date: Wed, 11 Feb 2004 20:52:25 -0700 � From: Monique Y. Herman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> � To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] � Subject: Re: Info vs Man � Resent-Date: Wed, 11 Feb 2004 22:12:17 -0600 (CST) � Resent-From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] � � On 2004-02-11, J.H.M. Dassen (Ray) penned: � > On Wed, Feb 11, 2004 at 13:10:51 -0600, Kent West wrote: � >> At the risk of starting holy war, why has the GNU project decided to � >> go with info pages instead of man pages? � > � >> Some of the other hits seemed to imply that man pages were better, � >> although there was no definitive explanation as to why (or why not). � >> � >> Anyone have any insight on this question? � > � > The man format is a suitable format for reference documentation of � > software that isn't too complex. If a manpage is larger that say 15 to � > 20 physical pages, the lack of structure (or if you will, the rigidity � > of the sequential section structure) becomes annoying for readers. � > � > The GNU info format is a hypertext format; it allows documentation to � > have more structure, both hierarchical (sections, chapters, appendices � > etc.) and non-hierarchical (cross-references, footnotes). This allows � > it to be an acceptable format for larger pieces of documentation, such � > as documentation of more complex programs or applications and for � > tutorial documentation. � � I see your point ... but ugh. � � I'll take a single document that I can search and eyeball-scan over � multiple linked documents almost always. Example: the fetchmail man � page. Yes, it's farking huge, but I can find what I need by searching � on a key term. � � When I'm looking at the mutt (or any) documentation online, I'd rather � have the "one big file" approach than the linked approach, too. � � Maybe it's just me, but I've never felt comfortable with info. If the � man pages give me some line about how info is the official documentation � format, I just head to google. Info is too much of a pain.
Pinfo has some searching capability of info files but not complex or regex searching stile. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
