[Info-vax] Radical command line suggestion

[lists at openmailbox.org]

On Fri, 20 Mar 2015 07:47:34 -0400
Stephen Hoffman via Info-vax <info-vax at rbnsn.com> wrote:

> If you're new or need to do anything beyond looking up qualifiers for a
> specific command, HELP is absurdly difficult to use, and the text of the
> help libraries grossly inadequate.

I'm new and I don't find HELP too difficult to use. It is a little annoying
that I can't page or search but the help sections seem reasonably compact
and if I miss it I swing 'round again.

> Seriously folks, if you think the choice here is between HELP and man, 
> then you've apparently forgotten there are other tools, and that 
> programmers can write new tools.

What would be wrong with adding seach and paging to HELP and updating the
content and adding new content within basically the same system?

> But then the OpenVMS HTML-format documentation has issues, too — that's
> still built for the era of printed books, and really doesn't have much in
> the way of linkages between those units

There was a related discussion on the IBM systems programming (that's
VMS-speak for Systems Manager) list recently about doc preferences.
Overwhelmingly, people prefer IBM's proprietary BookManager tool and doc
specifically because it's just like reading the physical manual. It's used
online and doesn't require a graphics terminal. It was designed for a 3270
but there are Java versions for PC users too. It does have hyperlinks. All
the IBM people seem to prefer BookManager to PDF.

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