[Info-vax] VMS Help, man pages and info, was: Re: Long uptime cut short by Hurricane Sandy

[Simon Clubley]

On 2013-02-05, Johnny Billquist <bqt at softjar.se> wrote:
> On 2013-02-05 17:52, Bill Gunshannon wrote:
>> In article <kerbql$q6r$1 at iltempo.update.uu.se>,
>> 	Johnny Billquist <bqt at softjar.se> writes:
>>> On 2013-02-05 15:49, Bill Gunshannon wrote:
>>>> Much like a VMS-like HELP system.  People here are constanly knocking
>>>> the unix manpages system while holding up the HELP system as the
>>>> epitome of online documentation but still,no one has bothered to
>>>> write one for Unix. To me that just shows that people on Unix don't
>>>> hold it at the same level of esteem and writing one would be a
>>>> waste of time.
>>>
>>> Can you spell to info?
>>
>> Yes, but last I looked it was very limiyted and no one was moving all
>> of the unix man pages into it.  personally, I have always found it
>> cumbersome and of little use.
>
> I'm not too fond of info, but it definitely is different than man, and 
> it exists because people dislike man.
> That unix don't have something like VMS help can be attributed to lots 
> of things. But obviously there is a need and a wish for something else 
> than the current man-pages, which are a good reference library at best, 
> and just horrible text at worst. It's never really helpful. :-)
>

Two statements:

1) man pages are just as useful as VMS help and are probably better
in some areas.

2) info is far more than just another man and is far better and far more
capable than man pages.

My reasons for believing this:

1) VMS help versus man:

VMS help only gives you a really basic summary of each command option;
with few exceptions it does not give you any real overview or conceptual
information. About the only thing you can do with VMS help is to double
check on the syntax or name of a qualifier before you use it.

This part of VMS help is no different than what you get with the
monolithic list of options on a man page and is worse because at least
the man page gives you the list of options in one go. On VMS help
you have to either to type in each qualifier name to read it's help
text or use a * to see the help text for all qualifiers if you are
not sure which qualifier you want to use or want to look up the help
for several of them.

Also, you can search through all the man pages in one go to find matching
keywords. You cannot do that with VMS help.

Man pages also tend to point you in the direction of related commands
or system calls you may find useful and sometimes have discussions on
tricky aspects of various commands.

However, once you get past this level of information and want some
conceptual or tutorial type information then man pages and VMS help
are not capable of providing this and you move into the area of PDF
manuals or info manuals.

2) info versus man:

People tend to think of info as just a glorified man page reader but it
isn't. man was designed to read single pages of text but info was designed
to allow you to read whole manuals online.

A number of projects supply their full user manual in online info format
and the info manual can be navigated in just the same way as a PDF version
of the manual can be in a PDF reader. When both formats are available, I
switch between them at will; the PDF manual has higher information
density, but the info manual, displayed in a terminal window, is quicker
to search through.

The info manuals I read the most are the binutils linker manual (try
finding the GNU ld linker script syntax and usage documentation on the
ld man page :-)), the gcc manual and the make manual.

Simon.

-- 
Simon Clubley, clubley at remove_me.eisner.decus.org-Earth.UFP
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