Date: Mon, 08 Jul 1996 18:49:51 -0400 From: Gary Chrysler <tcg@ime.net> To: James Raynard <fqueries@jraynard.demon.co.uk> Cc: questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Ports suggestion Message-ID: <31E1908F.2614@ime.net> References: <199607071015.KAA01396@jraynard.demon.co.uk>
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James Raynard wrote: > > > > "man xxxxx" is a standard Unix-ism for finding out how to use > > > something; Unix programs generally assume that the user knows how to > > > use Unix :-) > > > > > > > Is it not in the best intrest of FreeBSD to encurage New users? > > We all had/have to start someplace! > > Very true, although hopefully you'll soon get a little further along > the road :-) > Slow but sure, My intentions are to make it easier for those that follow! > > A simple 1 line: `See man xxxx(x) for documentation`, would point > > the new user in the right direction. > > xxxx(x) is not always easy to determine with some packages. > > Some programs don't have a simple xxxx(x), unfortunately. I like the > way INN sets out its man pages, so you can start with innd(8) and then > move around as the fancy takes you, but not everyone thinks out their > man pages as carefully as this. > I don't mean man xxxx(x) only, I mean SOMETHING!! > Not to mention GNU, with their "man pages are obsolete" attitude. It happens. > > > New users (at least I do) spend more time trying to find > > documentation then reading installing and configuring the package. > > Not a way to encurage people! > > Depends - when I as in that position, I often found myself stumbling > across interesting things in my searches (until I found out what > 'apropos' and 'whatis' did - try 'whatis whatis' :-) Yea, Me too.. I get off into other things and forget what I was looking for in the first place.. :) I have to thank Jordan for pointing these basics out to me on voice line a couple of years back.. Right after 2.0r came out. I used to live real close to WCCD. > > > Apache, is nice, It tells you where to find help. albeit worthless > > if one does not have a connection to the internet! > > Actually this is something that really annoys me with certain > programs. Why couldn't they provide an .html copy of their online help > with the code? (It's not as if it's difficult or involves giving away > any trade secrets). Not everyone has a permanent Internet connection > paid for by someone else! > Personally I don't want HTML, I would prefer to see something thats standard on ALL platforms, ASCII Text! So they are not pretty, To bad, They are effective. > > There is mention of the pkg_* commands, suffecient I belive! > > My point was to stay one step ahead of the user by pointing to > > the documentation. The pointer to the documentation could be > > displayed in the pkg_info infofile. > > Some do, some don't, All should! > > I'm all in favour of consistency - at the moment this is left to the > discretion of whoever created the package (this is the price you pay > for having people work for you for nothing - if you start trying to > lay down rules, they immediately lose interest). > Well, I feel the attitudes of the people that do the ports would follow any guidelines provided to improve upon the end goal. Of course within reason. > > I would think this would also be good for the Team by helping to > > prevent some of these repetious questions. > > And good for the readers by preventing repetitious answers :-) > Yup. > Unfortunately this is all a bit academic as far as 2.1.5 is concerned > (the packages were all compiled last week), but maybe something can be > done for 2.2. > The purpose, Make things better for the future. -Enjoy Gary ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Improve America's Knowledge... Share yours The Borg... Where minds meet (207) 929-3848
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