On Sun, Oct 01, 2000 at 11:27:09PM +0800, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > The biggest problem with this reusable code business is the time > expended in looking for it. If you think about the man pages, there > is a fairly rigid structure that defines the manner in which most > applications/commands must be applied and what data they can/need to > have when applied. > So why couldn't the linux community come up with a database that can > be contributed to by the linux programming community with a similar > level of structure this would help in searching for desired objects > or functionality. ie: more manpages if man section 3 (library calls) isn't up to it, perhaps a new "not quite libraries, not quite applications" section is called for? we could go out on a limb and call it section "3corba" (except that that still fits perfectly within the existing man structure - not nearly "innovative" enough) > Distribution packager's could even build default Developer databases > from this, documenting the uses and methods of application of these > reusable objects. packages can usually include manpages, and the distribution usually ensures that mkwhatis is run regularly. > For the most part it would be a text database so it would be very > compressible and as long as it had a reasonably good structure it > could be easily searched. man pages are usually gzip'ed > The whole linux community ethic is to absorb anything that comes > along...why should bonobo and the like be allowed to fall be the > wayside?? Linux has breathed new life into the Unix'esque world, > should we now balk because something new doesn't smell enough like > old unix?? i agree completely, and believe that the existing man page system is perfect for the task. now you just have to tell all those "we must have all documentation as HTML, because thats good (for some reason)" gnome people that ;) (i think kde is also in that camp?) (or if they must use SGML, they can use docbook <refentry> sections, which deliberately duplicate manpage structure) -- - Gus -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ More Info: http://slug.org.au/lists/listinfo/slug
