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I would argue the discoverability of a man page is equal to the discoverability of a gui, when both are well designed. You don't read a man page top to bottom,
by dahfizz 7y ago
I would argue the discoverability of a man page is equal to the discoverability of a gui, when both are well designed.
You don't read a man page top to bottom, you skim and skip around, discovering the information you need.
- TheOtherHobbes 7y agoI would argue that's untrue. Limited screen space discourages the proliferation of obscure GUI options and pushes the UX towards simple packaged tasks optimised for graphic representations - or at least representations with a strong graphic organisation, even if there's plenty of text involved. The trend in the command line is in an orthogonal direction - more and more complex function-like options with minimal mnemonic labels, optimised for text representations and text processing.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- TeMPOraL 7y ago> You don't read a man page top to bottom Which is a problem of its own, in a way. Reading a man page top to bottom is few minutes. Reading a user guide/Info pages (for the good software that still comes with one) for a more complex tool (e.g. gdb) takes couple of hours. If you're going to use the application more frequently or for more than an hour in total, the time spent reading the manual will pay for itself - in reduced frustration, much quicker discovery, and much less StackOverflow searches (and getting confused by wrong/misguided answers). Reading manuals top to bottom: an ancient, forgotten superpower.