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Date: Mon, 26 Jan 2004 07:05:51 -0800
From: Eivind Eklund <eivind@FreeBSD.org>
To: Diomidis Spinellis <dds@aueb.gr>
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Subject: Re: cvs commit: src/usr.bin/fetch fetch.1
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On Sat, Jan 24, 2004 at 11:27:34AM +0200, Diomidis Spinellis wrote:
> Let us not forget that the Unix manual pages provide reference material; 
> they are not a user guide.  They historically have been terse, to the 
> point, and honest in admitting shortcomings (bugs).  While a user might 
> find it helpful to read the environment variable documentation in 
> fetch(1), the correct thing to do in reference material is to document 
> the variables where they are implemented, namely fetch(3), and provide a 
> cross reference.

My feeling about this is that we are giving our users a lot of
inconvenience in the search for some kind of "idelogical purity" (in the
form of consistency), where the purity does not buy us much.  Purity
should not be a goal in and of itself.  Purity is a tool for making the
system as a whole easier to deal with - a powerful, important and good
tool, but a tool.

I've had repeated cases of support on these variables because users do
not find them.  I agree with DES about duplication - I just think that
the variables should be documented in fetch.1 instead of fetch.3.

Eivind.