Re: specifications

[Joe Cooper <joe@swelltech.com>]

Feloy wrote:
> 
> Greg O'Keefe wrote:
> >
> > I have a book called "The Unix System" by S. Bourne, 1984ish, which is the
> > best computer book I own. In it, it mentions a command, similar to man,
> > called learn. This offered tutorial material on each command, rather than
> > the reference type material that man gives you. I think it also kept track
> > of your progress through the units. This seemed like a brilliant idea to me,
> > and I was a little sad to find that it wasn't implemented in my (Red Hat)
> > linux system.
> >
> > Anyone know about this command from the prehistoric days of Unix?
> > Could reimplementing it be a worthwhile LDP project? I think so.
> >
> 
> Try info. I think this system was created for this purpose.

Surely you jest!?

Info is the most obtuse beast I've ever seen.  And so far all of the
standard commands are documented in that fabulous GNU style ("Death
before Example!").

I can't even figure out how to use Info without reading the info page
for it every time I try to use it.

I suppose it would be possible to write good documentation in info, but
let's not pretend that the info pages are already appropriate for
learning a GNU system.  They are appropriate for reminding an expert
what options are available...and even then, they are pretty opaque.

I like the idea of a 'learn' command.  In fact I think it's brilliant. 
The info/man pages can be left as they are and new example-rich content
could be written also...which links to the info/man page when the
learner wants the definitive reference.  Something along the lines of
the vi tutor or Emacs tutor files would be very good to have for a lot
of the basic commands.  They wouldn't need to be long (in fact they
probably shouldn't be).  Just show the common cases and explain what
they do.

Just a thought.
                                 -- 
                    Joe Cooper <joe@swelltech.com>
                Affordable Web Caching Proxy Appliances
                       http://www.swelltech.com


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