Re: Difficulty finding documentation (and how to use the docs) for command-lineprograms

Boy can I relate to this one!  Not only is the documentation obscure but
even when it is avalible in html it so chopped up that it is almost
useless. Whoever came up with the idea that each topic of the
documentation should be put in a new page aught to be shot. This makes
searching for what one needs almost impossible. I find myself having to
search page by page for what I'm looking for.

If the documentation is for an application I like to print it out so I can
read and study it while away from the computer.  With the documentation so
chopped up, it first has to be pulled into a word processer and massaged
before it can be printed; other wise one ends up wasting a tremendous
amount of paper.

I understand that programmers think writing documentation is a waste of
time; but writing programs that no one can use, because they don't know
how to use it, is an even greater waste of time.  Like it or not
documentation is a vital part of good programming, and needs to be treated
with the same respect as good coding.

Just MHO;

Paul

> It seems that I always need some obscure feature of a program. However,
> despite using various unixes and linux (as a business user, not as a tech
> person) for 14 years, I am still stymied by the difficulty in figuring out
> where to find the documentation for any given program, particularly
> command-line programs.
>
> My server has 100s of MB of docs. But that is usually of little help.
>
> If 'man programname' doesn't work, I am in trouble.  Between help and info
> and perldoc and stuff in postscript and this and that and whatever, it is
> a
> mess.
>
> In many cases, if I knew how to find and use the docs, I would not have
> the
> question that I have.
>
> Linux has to be more friendly to the non-technical user, especially when
> it
> comes to the accessibility of (and readability of) the docs.  In a perfect
> world, there would be an accepted standard of how one determines where the
> docs are and how to use them.  Doing something like 'programname --docs'
> should tell you where the docs are installed *on your system* and how to
> invoke them or use them; and if any special doc-reading program is needed,
> how to find out how to run that.
>
> *I do like computers,* but I earn my living by using the output of the
> programs I run to increase my productivity so that I can deliver my
> product/service faster, at less cost, and in better quality.  I don't earn
> my living trying to figure out how to make a program work the way I want
> it to.
>
> Jay
>
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