Philipp Thomas wrote, On 02/25/2013 01:18 PM: > Am 25.02.13 19:07, schrieb Pádraig Brady: > >> $ truncate --help | tail -n4 >> GNU coreutils online help: <http://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/#help> >> For complete documentation, run: info coreutils 'truncate invocation' >> >> Then the "online help section" can verbosely list, >> bug email, faq, online manual, ... without restrictions to screen width etc. > > +1 from me
I also like this idea very much. But I'd go a step further, and ask to make the Coreutils webpage more approachable. The current page ( http://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/ ) is no-doubt exhaustive and accurate - but I find it a bit un-inviting: Each section has a long paragraph, and one needs to read a lot of each to get to the relevant links. I humbly think it sacrifices being helpful for being very detailed and technical. If we're adding a new "help" section, perhaps consider something like the following, which is a short bullet-list of all the important links, with the first word being a verb indicating what to do. There will be some (a lot?) of redundancy between the "Quick help" and the rest of the page, but for new-comers, or people who need help and don't want to read long English text, it might be more helpful? === Getting Help * Check Questions and Answers for common problems: Coreutils FAQ<URL> * Search the archives for previous questions and answers: * coreutils Mailing list<URL> - General usage and advice * bug-coreutils Mailing List<URL> - Bug reports * Send general questions to: [email protected] (Please check the FAQ & mailing-list archives above before sending questions, many common questions have already been answered in details). * Read the complete manual (HTML<URL>, PDF<URL>). * To see program usage information, run the following on your terminal: man sort (to see the 'sort' program brief manual page) info sort (to see the 'sort' program complete manual page) * If you think you found a bug with a GNU coreutils program, please send it to [email protected]. Before sending the bug, please consult the FAQ and Mailing list archives (above) - many times these perceived bugs are simply due to wrong program usage. To learn more about reporting bugs, see Getting help with GNU software<URL>. === And in HTML === <h3><a name="help">Getting Help</a></h3> <ul class="help-list"> <!-- FAQ --> <li>Check Questions and Answers for common problems: <a href="http://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/faq/coreutils-faq.html";>Coreutils FAQ</a> </li> <!-- Search Mailing lists --> <li>Search the archives for previous questions and answers: <ul> <li><a href="http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/coreutils/";>coreutils Mailing list</a> - General usage and advice</li> <li><a href="http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-coreutils/";>bug-coreutils Mailing List</a> - Bug reports</li> </ul> </li> <!-- [email protected] --> <li>Send general questions to: <a href="mailto:[email protected]";>[email protected]</a><br/> (Please check the FAQ & mailing-list archives above before sending questions, many common questions have already been answered in details). </li> <!-- Coreutils Manual --> <li> Read the complete <a href="http://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/";>manual</a> (<a href="http://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html";>HTML</a>, <a href="http://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.pdf";>PDF</a>). </li> <!-- man/info pages --> <li> To see program usage information, run the following on your terminal: <pre> <samp> man sort (to see the 'sort' program brief manual page) info sort (to see the 'sort' program complete manual page) </samp> </pre> </li> <!-- [email protected] --> <li> If you think you found a bug with a GNU coreutils program, please send it to <a href="mailto:[email protected]";>[email protected]</a>. Before sending the bug, please consult the FAQ and Mailing list archives (above) - many times these perceived bugs are simply due to wrong program usage. To learn more about reporting bugs, see <a href="http://www.gnu.org/help/gethelp.html";>Getting help with GNU software</a>. </li> </ul> === -gordon
