Re: Fred Linux Annoyance List.

On Wed, Oct 15, 2003 at 07:09:24AM -0400, Fred P. wrote:
> 2) Some man pages are WAY too long, you scroll for years with zillions of 
> options, gcc comes to mind,
>    and you cannot find the one you REALLY want.

Try pinfo gcc

If it finds an info page, it uses that (which is often much easier
to navigate), otherwise it uses a man page. It is meant to be similar
to the lynx web browser but a lot simpler, obviously.

Sometimes pinfo crashes, in which case you just have to go back to
man or info. :(

> 9) Application should have different user mode:
>     - Newbie
>     - Normal
>     - Expert
>     - User specify

The only problem with this is, if newbie mode excludes features,
the newbie may actually need/want those features and be annoyed
when s/he can't find them.

Also this request relates to your complaint about inconsistency: if there are
all these different modes, documentation may become more confusing.

But sure, different modes are useful and are here to stay. Some people
prefer cmdline, some people prefer GUI. No reason why a program can't
offer both options (and more), and some do, e.g. emacs (which I wouldn't
recommend as user-friendly, but at least it is flexible).

> 14) Most Unix commands makes use of RegExp, awk, sed, perl.
>    The problem with RegExp requires a DFA/NFA CompSci hard theory course
>    and cannot be really self-taught.
>    --> Make a newbish GUI RegExp builder tool?

KDE has one I think.

But it should not be necessary to learn regexp just to do a search and replace
through multiple files.

Also sed (and another package, gawk IIRC) don't document their regular expressions
capabilities...

> 15) Hide as much as you can from the user, make it "progressive".
>    Don't INSTALL everything. Ask the user what he wants to install and how 
> he want it,

That should be optional of course - Expert mode and Easy mode, or something.
(But you already mentioned that of course.)

> 16) TrueType Windows fonts!!!
>    Who invented anti-aliasing for less than 18pt fonts ?
>    I can't believe people use anti-aliasing for 8,10,12,14pt... are you 
> dyslectic or what?

Actually it looks quite pleasing to the eye.

>    Anti-Aliasing is only good for BIGGGG font like 36pt titles and more...

Not at all. If you have a crappy implementation they will look crap, but that's
because of the implementation, not because it's bad to antialias 12pt fonts -
it isn't.

Anyway thanks for all your complaints. I'm thinking of forking a new OS based
on GNU/Linux, and the stuff on this list has given me lots of ideas. The great
thing about writing a new OS is you don't have to worry about "Oh Linus Torvalds
will never accept changing /proc to /kernel" or "Oh Red Hat will never accept
a patch to fundamentally change x y or z" - you just go your own way!

-- 
Robin