Hi, Ralph Corderoy wrote on Sun, Jan 22, 2012 at 05:16:01PM +0000: > Clarke Echols wrote:
>> I agree with Ingo. Unix man pages are supposed to have a well-defined >> sequence and format. > (Many, the majority?, don't comply on common Linux systems, > unfortunately.) Right, which is exactly why parsing manuals is so difficult, and not really a healthy task for beginners. > Neither of you are allowing that Siteshwar may be doing this for his own > personal enjoyment, for learning more, for a project to work on, or > something that he'd like to use. Oh, of course i am. However, in case he is planning to do it for enjoyment or learning - there are so many useful things that need to be done. About two years ago, i sent some yp(8) patches to Mats O. Jansson, asking for a review, and was quite suprised about his response, which roughly went like this: "Right, i wrote that code in my youth, in a playful way, because i wanted to learn about yp(8). I have moved on to other projects a decade ago. Feel free to send patches, yes, if i see anything dangerous, i'll tell you, but if you don't hear anything, go ahead and commit, i don't claim ownership of that code any longer." The point is, the code has been so stable during that decade that it didn't even need a maintainer; with a bit of polishing now and then by whoever was around, it remained in production quality. There is no need to choose stupid projects for learning; actually, you not only *produce* less, you also *learn* less in a project that is bound for failure right from the start. In case he needs it for a project or wants to use it - it would be cruel not to tell him that the project is probably going to fail. I mean, he is asking for advice, and obviously knows rather little about roff(1) and man(7). "How do i best shoot my knee? Should i hold the gun this way or that?" We *should* tell him that he should better not aim at his knee at all, or at least pay attention that no other people are standing behind his back, right? > bash(1) Maybe, but i don't really know; i stopped using that one about a decade ago. Yours, Ingo
