4 ms·

Info is even worse IMHO. Navigating a hierarchy makes it harder to skim and search through, as well as easier to get lost. And when you have such hierarchy, m

by clarry 7y ago

Info is even worse IMHO. Navigating a hierarchy makes it harder to skim and search through, as well as easier to get lost. And when you have such hierarchy, manual writers can use that as an excuse to write even longer (sigh) manuals. To me, much like code and math, the art of writing good documentation is all about finding a way to make it short and simple (but still correct and complete).

fanf2 7y ago
`info x | less` gives you a better info browser than info
- alyandon 7y ago
  If only I could somehow coax info to render all subnodes into a single page and then pipe it through less it'd be useful to me.
thom 7y ago
You can search a whole info file just as quickly as a man page, and using the index you can jump to the canonical docs for any argument or command in one go (ever spent time trying to find the hyphen-character section of a man page but struggled because it's referenced in 10 places?). I'll admit that whenever in man or info, I will generally go straight to the examples section because that's just how my brain works, but at that point I appreciate that info files aren't stingy with detail.
- clarry 7y ago
  > You can search a whole info file just as quickly as a man page It's possible that I just don't know how to use info. I always end up in the wrong place. That does not happen with man. > and using the index you can jump to the canonical docs for any argument or command in one go How? > (ever spent time trying to find the hyphen-character section of a man page but struggled because it's referenced in 10 places?) No, because the options are indented and inserting a few spaces before the hyphen in search string eliminates virtually all in-text references. Conventionally, the options are alpha-sorted too. In info pages, I end up wondering which section the option I want might be covered in.
  - sedachv 7y ago
    > How? I in Emacs info-mode. The prompt also has autocompletion.

by clarry 7y ago

fanf2 7y ago

`info x | less` gives you a better info browser than info

alyandon 7y ago
If only I could somehow coax info to render all subnodes into a single page and then pipe it through less it'd be useful to me.

thom 7y ago

You can search a whole info file just as quickly as a man page, and using the index you can jump to the canonical docs for any argument or command in one go (ever spent time trying to find the hyphen-character section of a man page but struggled because it's referenced in 10 places?). I'll admit that whenever in man or info, I will generally go straight to the examples section because that's just how my brain works, but at that point I appreciate that info files aren't stingy with detail.

clarry 7y ago
> You can search a whole info file just as quickly as a man page It's possible that I just don't know how to use info. I always end up in the wrong place. That does not happen with man. > and using the index you can jump to the canonical docs for any argument or command in one go How? > (ever spent time trying to find the hyphen-character section of a man page but struggled because it's referenced in 10 places?) No, because the options are indented and inserting a few spaces before the hyphen in search string eliminates virtually all in-text references. Conventionally, the options are alpha-sorted too. In info pages, I end up wondering which section the option I want might be covered in.
- sedachv 7y ago
  > How? I in Emacs info-mode. The prompt also has autocompletion.