> Also, other man pages are similarly converted. Really, man pages are > sick without a teacher, for me of course. > Rajib
Rajib, The pushback you will get here is not because it isn't a good idea to have some documentation that is easier to use. The problem is historical and one of standardization. So you understand, here's my understanding (I'm sure people will correct me where I'm wrong): Debian is one of many different linux distributions and is a variant of Unix of which there are several still existing variants. Unix having it's roots in Multix and was said to be "Unix is Multix without the balls". All of these different operationg systems have the same origin dating back to the 60s and 70s. The man pages are one of these throw backs. The pieces of software that make up debian don't all originate within the debian project. Much of the software originates from what we call "upstream" meaning it's outside of debian and it "flows" into debian. Nobody here on this list or even within the debian community has any authority to get other variants of unix/linux to move to a new manual format. Furthermore, The unix/gnu-linux man pages are only supposed to be succient reference pages, though often they do contain working examples. They are definitely not meant to be tutorials, they never were and never have been. For me, the biggest change I've seen globally to man pages is that someone thankfully fixed the ROFF man processor to format man pages as a single long page rather than multiple pages of fixed 66 lines with headers and footers at 66 line intervals. Those headers and footers in the middle of the man page annoyed me for decades! I don't know who finally fixed that but if you're reading this, THANK YOU. This change happened because someone upstream altered the workings of the 'man' command which had a global effect. Altering the contents of man pages is not the same thing. There are other systems such as 'info' which came out of the gnuemacs info which I think is probably more appropriate for the tutorial like things you want. Things like the debian wiki that was mentioned, this is really debian specific and again, unix/linux is a much larger thing of which debian is a "consumer" of. It would be quite good if when people built software that beyond simple man pages that they were also nudged to create longer documentation in info or something that could be used to create some easy to use documentation site like some global unix wiki. Anyway, just trying to get my point across that your ideas may be laudible and good, but what you seek globally can't be accomplished locally. You either need to do it outside on the side of all the software out there, a monumental effort, or somehow effectuate a change to get software authors to write better documentation and ship it with their software. Michael Grant
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