-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of Ralph Shumaker
Sent: Tuesday, October 18, 2005 12:33 PM
To: Main Discussion List for KPLUG
Subject: I hate "info" (and "man") (and love them too)
I hate "info". I like how much information is there. I guess I just
hate it because I haven't yet figured out how to navigate through it.
I've tried to figure it out. (There's a lot of info in "info info".)
Usually, I just use the space bar to go through it a page at a time.
Using any other keys I usually end up in places totally unrelated. And
even using the space bar, in some topics it gets to a certain place
where it just starts looping through the same series of pages. Did I
mention that I hate "info"? I think at this point, I would prefer to
have everything in html pages, particularly if I can modify them easily
to correct the myriad mistakes I find (usually the grammar of someone
whose english is not their first language, secondly mistakes that happen
when one goes back and edits text without properly proofreading
afterwards, but thirdly sometimes mistakes in instructions or examples
(info tar has quite a few of these. (in rh9 (Worry not. I'm in the
process of moving up to fc3. (I tried fc4 but it wouldn't work on my
PC.)))). Assuming the html pages are simply black on white with links
in blue, I would like to change previous text to a strikeout font, add
my changes in green (links still blue but enclosed by green "<>"), and
any mistakes that I cannot figure out what they intended to say, just
change them to red. Hopefully, the authors would be interested in my
efforts.
I hate "man" for its lack of clear examples. For those who a well
versed in such mystic chants, the examples couldn't be clearer. I can
never think of nor find good examples when I want them, but in "man ls"
is this:
--backup[=CONTROL]
make a backup of each existing destination file
Now, those of you who understand this without further explanation
perhaps cannot comprehend why those like me just don't get it. There is
no explanation of what CONTROL is. Now I *do* understand that =CONTROL
is an option because I understand that the brackets signify this.
In many places in "man", I find myself reading through a whole bunch of
explanation that I'm just not picturing, and find myself *craving* an
example. But, that being said, an example by itself is never enough. I
also want to see (with the example) actual output of what that example
does. With html, it would be easy to have a link (_example_) which can
be ignored by anyone who doesn't need it.
I like info more than man in that it gives more information including
examples and such.
I like man more than info in that it has nowhere near as much to plod
through when I want something simple and specific.
On the subject of liking and hating things, one thing I hate about html
(and several others, including man (but *not* info)) is how page-down
works when you hit the last page. In man, most of the time that I hit
page-down, I resume reading at the very top line (very consistent) until
the last page comes up. The bottom of the text does a hard stop at the
bottom of the screen giving me whiplash of the brain. At this point, I
have to tell the reading center of my brain "Ahem! Experiencing
technical difficulties. Please stand by while I scan the page for the
last words I was reading. Once I find them, I will back up to the
beginning of the thought that was so brutally interrupted and restart
reading from that point. Please stand by. I'm sure I will find that
stupid text I was just reading any moment now. Please stand by. ...
... ... Erm, what was I just reading? Crap!!~! Please stand by
while I go back to the top of the man page, hit page down until I find
myself back to where I was before I hit that infernally stoopid
page-down button. Please stand by. Almost there. Almost there. Hey,
this damn page is a lot longer than I thought it was. Shit, I'm nowhere
near the end yet. Please stand by. Please stand by. Aah, I think
we're here. Damn. False alarm. Please stand by. Please stand...
SHIT!!! I hit the damned end again. Here we go again." (Yes, I'm
exagerating the process, but not the emotions.) Why the hell can't all
pagers (including html) remain consistent between ALL pages, including
the last one!?! I think all html pages should have as their last line
"No more after this." and followed by about a hundred newlines. Same
goes for all man pages (either that or change the default-installation
page-down-default to mimick ESC-spacebar.)
Speaking of default-installation defaults, is there any reason for the
seemingly-insane default of Num-Lock being disabled?
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