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]
