Seems to me you could satisfy both your desire for consistency and that of being a frustrated writer by writing the man page that details how to write a man page in the accepted Plan 9 style.
--jim On Tue Dec 6 08:03:30 EST 2005, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > > On Dec 6, 2005, at 4:32 AM, Charles Forsyth wrote: > > >> But most importantly, they try to ensure > >> consistency throughout the documentation set. > > > > so does Plan 9; it just doesn't use your rules. > > I'm curious about this comment. man(6) describes the macros it makes > available, but it says nothing about how they should be used in the > context of writing the man page itself. There is no mention > whatsoever of style or usage. (USG derived UNIXen suffered this > malady as well, to varying degrees.) > > So how is an author to know how to write something that is congruent > with the current style? They can read existing man pages and try to > glean from them, but inevitably errors will creep in. And those > errors will become input to the next generation of authors, and so it > goes. > > Wasn't it Steve Johnson who did the original sweep through the UNIX > man pages, editing out inconsistent usage and rationalizing the > layout? In the 1970s? > > --lyndon > > P.S. And no, I am not in any way pissing on Rob's work!
