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Date:      Thu, 4 Jun 2009 17:35:35 +0200
From:      Polytropon <freebsd@edvax.de>
To:        utisoft@gmail.com
Cc:        Wojciech Puchar <wojtek@wojtek.tensor.gdynia.pl>, Polytropon <freebsd@edvax.de>, "freebsd-questions@freebsd.org" <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org>, Chris Rees <utisoft@googlemail.com>
Subject:   Re: Date representation as YY/DDD or YYYY/DDD
Message-ID:  <20090604173535.984e32d6.freebsd@edvax.de>
In-Reply-To: <b79ecaef0906040223q34875f54wfb523c2cc893373e@mail.gmail.com>
References:  <20090603230314.bfeecf1a.freebsd@edvax.de> <200906031607.11697.kirk@strauser.com> <20090603235219.2e8abb8a.freebsd@edvax.de> <200906031700.45600.kirk@strauser.com> <20090604010054.a45f5880.freebsd@edvax.de> <alpine.BSF.2.00.0906040113270.28607@wojtek.tensor.gdynia.pl> <8BA60025-A005-4E38-9D5E-A9C11AB3C17C@strauser.com> <alpine.BSF.2.00.0906041007400.31357@wojtek.tensor.gdynia.pl> <b79ecaef0906040223q34875f54wfb523c2cc893373e@mail.gmail.com>

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On Thu, 4 Jun 2009 10:23:34 +0100, Chris Rees <utisoft@googlemail.com> wrote:
> The FreeBSD project still uses man pages as the principle form of
> documentation.

Sorry I brought up this topic... I don't think manpages are bad,
I cosider them THE BEST SOLUTION for local documentation, so I
don't think your use of the word "still" is well placed here.

It should be "The FreeBSD project uses man pages [...]" - not "still",
which reads like "The FreeBSD project still uses those old
fashioned man pages, but will abandon them soon in favour of
a GUI-driven help system that is used via Internet." :-)

As a programmer, FreeBSD's documentation - beginning with the
manpages, furthermore including the FAQ and the handbook, and
finally the source code as well - is the most excellent kind
of documentation I've seen so far. Returning to the manpages,
they cover everything: Binaries, file formats, maintenance
procedures, kernel interfaces, library calls... nothing
important is missing. If you have a problem with "foo", you
simply enter "man foo" to get more info about it. This is
a situation you won't find in modern Linusi, and sadly, as
well in modern applications on FreeBSD, mostly those that
are GUI driven. Try to find manpages for some program from
the KDE project. In opposite, try "man mplayer" or "man xmms",
and, there's even "man opera", but no "man firefox". In
those cases where there's no manpage, users are usually
redirected to some web forum, Wiki, or encouraged to write
the documentation on their own. :-) I think Wojciech just had
the same observation.



-- 
Polytropon
>From Magdeburg, Germany
Happy FreeBSD user since 4.0
Andra moi ennepe, Mousa, ...



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