4 ms·

I've recently used EDLIN from an 80s version of MS-DOS. After spending 5 minutes with the manual, I realized it was the best line editor I've ever used. ed is

I've recently used EDLIN from an 80s version of MS-DOS. After spending 5 minutes with the manual, I realized it was the best line editor I've ever used. ed is very similar, but it doesn't come with a nice manual. The info page is chaotic and doesn't start from the beginning. You can cover typical usage in 5 lines, but no, you have to read through 25 pages of stuff just to figure out a sensible command. I just use vim or nano.

yjftsjthsd-h 8y ago
That seems to be the theme of all info pages, and most GNU manpages. I suppose it beats no docs at least.
digi_owl 8y ago
My understanding is that man/info is meant more as a reference and less like a first time users guide.
- gpvos 8y ago
  Good man pages can be great first time user guides.
mikec3010 8y ago
25 pages that could be shown in one page if they skipped all the talk and just showed carefully selected examples .
beefhash 8y ago
> ed is very similar, but it doesn't come with a nice manual In many case it indeed doesn't. Historically, that documentation void was meant to be filled by learn tutorials[1] and a written introduction in volume 2A of the manual[2,3]. Unfortunately, the learn tutorials can't really be made use of in a modern environment; you’d actually have to set up a PDP-11 emulator with V7 (though prebuilt images exist) and work with that, an environment where backspace doesn’t really work out of the box. OpenBSD ed(1)[4] tries, but it's just not quite there as an introduction. [1] http://a.papnet.eu/UNIX/v7/files/doc/07_learn.pdf http://a.papnet.eu/UNIX/v7/files/doc/07_learn.pdf [2] http://a.papnet.eu/UNIX/v7/files/doc/04_edtut.pdf http://a.papnet.eu/UNIX/v7/files/doc/04_edtut.pdf [3] http://a.papnet.eu/UNIX/v7/files/doc/05_adved.pdf http://a.papnet.eu/UNIX/v7/files/doc/05_adved.pdf [4] https://man.openbsd.org/ed.1 https://man.openbsd.org/ed.1

yjftsjthsd-h 8y ago

That seems to be the theme of all info pages, and most GNU manpages. I suppose it beats no docs at least.

digi_owl 8y ago

My understanding is that man/info is meant more as a reference and less like a first time users guide.

gpvos 8y ago
Good man pages can be great first time user guides.

mikec3010 8y ago

25 pages that could be shown in one page if they skipped all the talk and just showed carefully selected examples .

beefhash 8y ago

> ed is very similar, but it doesn't come with a nice manual In many case it indeed doesn't. Historically, that documentation void was meant to be filled by learn tutorials[1] and a written introduction in volume 2A of the manual[2,3]. Unfortunately, the learn tutorials can't really be made use of in a modern environment; you’d actually have to set up a PDP-11 emulator with V7 (though prebuilt images exist) and work with that, an environment where backspace doesn’t really work out of the box. OpenBSD ed(1)[4] tries, but it's just not quite there as an introduction. [1] http://a.papnet.eu/UNIX/v7/files/doc/07_learn.pdf http://a.papnet.eu/UNIX/v7/files/doc/07_learn.pdf [2] http://a.papnet.eu/UNIX/v7/files/doc/04_edtut.pdf http://a.papnet.eu/UNIX/v7/files/doc/04_edtut.pdf [3] http://a.papnet.eu/UNIX/v7/files/doc/05_adved.pdf http://a.papnet.eu/UNIX/v7/files/doc/05_adved.pdf [4] https://man.openbsd.org/ed.1 https://man.openbsd.org/ed.1