man pages

[Knapp]

On Fri, Aug 8, 2008 at 5:18 PM, Billie Walsh <bilwalsh at swbell.net> wrote:
> Donn wrote:
>> On Friday, 08 August 2008 15:42:53 Willy K. Hamra wrote:
>>
>>> man files are great, but are a bit old fashioned, and don't serve
>>> the user's needs in a graphical environment.
>>>
>> Try reading them via Konqueror (maybe Dolphin too?)
>> Type "man: command" in the address bar.
>>
>> \d
>
> I hope any programmers here don't take this wrong. You guys do great
> stuff at what your best at. BUT, most times programmers aren't the best
> at writing up the instructions for the software you write.
>
> Like "man" pages. They assume a knowledge base that some just don't
> have. I know I don't. Most man pages are just gibberish for me. I
> haven't a clue what half the stuff they're telling me is, or does.
>
> The same goes or many of the "wiki" pages that I find. They are written
> by people that find it second nature to do what their trying to tell
> other what to do. If you don't have the knowledge base necessary it is
> nearly impossible to decipher.

I could not agree more! I just got a man page about a perlin noise
function. You can understand it unless you understand what and how
perlin does it's thing. A bit circluar as are most manuals. Or the
other ones that say that the close application button closes the
application.


-- 
Douglas E Knapp

http://sf-journey-creations.wikispot.org/Front_Page