On Wed, Feb 26, 2014 at 12:00:53PM +0000, Deri James wrote: > On Wed 26 Feb 2014 11:46:32 Ralph Corderoy wrote: >> Hi jkl, >> >>>> man pages don't really need expressive typography. >>> >>> Man pages are constrained by xterm. A better display system would >>> invite tables, graphs, equations, and links. >> >> I don't think they are. Or they didn't used to be. It was common to >> see man pages with `.if n' and `.if t', with the troff presenting the >> same data in better form, e.g. ASCII art versus pic(1). man pages used >> to be commonly printed and high-quality output desired, screen devices >> were glass TTYs, and Sun would ship printed paper man pages in > folders. >> I still check the PDF of a man page I alter as it shows flaws that >> grotty(1) can't. >> >> Cheers, Ralph. > > I hardly ever use "man command", nearly always do "man -t command" > because I have changed /etc/man.config to have the line:- > > TROFF groff -Tpdf -mandoc | /usr/bin/okular - > > So when I issue that command the page shows up in an okular window, a > much easier read, adjust zoom for comfort and great searching.
What do you want in a man page? Videos? 3D holograms? XTerm does not constrain nothing. It does what is expected from a terminal. Do you think your lawnmower needs a fix because you can take a ride on it? It's not a motorcycle. Man pages are not tutorials or complete manuals, they're just an aide-mémomire. It takes more time to open Okular than reading what you need! Seriously guys, you need a big dose of Common Sense.
