-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA256 Daniel Stenberg wrote: > On Wed, 18 Jul 2007, Micah Cowan wrote: > >> The manpage doesn't need to give as detailed explanations as the info >> manual (though, as it's auto-generated from the info manual, this >> could be hard to avoid); but it should fully describe essential features. > > I know GNU projects for some reason go with info, but I'm not in fan of > that. > > Personally I always just use man pages and only revert to using info > pages when forced. I simply don't like it when projects "hide" > information in info pages.
Well, the original intention, I think, is that the GNU operating system would use info as its primary documentation system, and avoid man altogether. However, since in reality people just used GNU programs on their own preexisting operating systems, which used nroff/man as their primary documentation system, it was useful to provide man pages as well. (AIUI.) Info is, IMO, a superior format to manpages (but only because that's really not saying much). However, my fingers still type "man wget" rather than "info wget" much more readily, for two reasons: (1) because only GNU programs tend to use Texinfo, whereas practically everything (including GNU software) uses man pages, so it's far more ubiquitous/habit-forming, and (2) I'm usually looking for a quick reference, not an easy-reading manual: I'm pulling man up to type "/something-or-other<RET>", which, for me, is easiest on an all-in-one reference page, than in a separated-by-node info manual. However, when I'm actually looking to read up on a _subject_, rather than an option or rc command, I'll use the Texinfo manual, since that's what it's better-suited for. Regardless of personal or group feelings about info, though, I pretty much have to have documentation in Texinfo format, as it's expected of GNU projects. However, Texinfo doesn't need to be the _source_ format; and this discussion makes me toy with the prospect of switching to DocBook XML. But I'm not sure I want to be rewriting the manual at this point. :p - -- Micah J. Cowan Programmer, musician, typesetting enthusiast, gamer... http://micah.cowan.name/ -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.6 (GNU/Linux) Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org iD8DBQFGn6ps7M8hyUobTrERCIn5AKCAAk0/4ThESmTO82CYlfye+cNaKQCfVbJI c/w+nbC8zasi0gS1VNkkETs= =ZkQE -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
