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diff --git a/public/poor-system-documentation.html b/public/poor-system-documentation.html index 1d2965e..452a4f8 100644 --- a/public/poor-system-documentation.html +++ b/public/poor-system-documentation.html @@ -11,10 +11,10 @@ <article> <h1 id="why-documentation-on-gnulinux-sucks">Why documentation on GNU/Linux sucks</h1> <p>This is based on a post on <a href="http://www.reddit.com/r/archlinux/comments/zoffo/systemd_we_will_keep_making_it_the_distro_we_like/c66uu57">reddit</a>, published on 2012-09-12.</p> -<p>The documentation situation on GNU/Linux based operating systems is right now a mess. In the world of documentation, there are basically 3 camps, the "UNIX" camp, the "GNU" camp, and the "GNU/Linux" camp.</p> -<p>The UNIX camp is the <code>man</code> page camp, they have quality, terse but informative man pages, on <em>everything</em>, including the system's design and all system files. If it was up to the UNIX camp, <code>man grub.cfg</code>, <code>man grub.d</code>, and <code>man grub-mkconfig_lib</code> would exist and actually be helpful. The man page would either include inline examples, or point you to a directory. If I were to print off all of the man pages, it would actually be a useful manual for the system.</p> +<p>The documentation situation on GNU/Linux based operating systems is right now a mess. In the world of documentation, there are basically 3 camps, the “UNIX” camp, the “GNU” camp, and the “GNU/Linux” camp.</p> +<p>The UNIX camp is the <code>man</code> page camp, they have quality, terse but informative man pages, on <em>everything</em>, including the system’s design and all system files. If it was up to the UNIX camp, <code>man grub.cfg</code>, <code>man grub.d</code>, and <code>man grub-mkconfig_lib</code> would exist and actually be helpful. The man page would either include inline examples, or point you to a directory. If I were to print off all of the man pages, it would actually be a useful manual for the system.</p> <p>Then GNU camp is the <code>info</code> camp. They basically thought that each piece of software was more complex than a man page could handle. They essentially think that some individual pieces software warrant a book. So, they developed the <code>info</code> system. The info pages are usually quite high quality, but are very long, and a pain if you just want a quick look. The <code>info</code> system can generate good HTML (and PDF, etc.) documentation. But the standard <code>info</code> is awkward as hell to use for non-Emacs users.</p> -<p>Then we have the "GNU/Linux" camp, they use GNU software, but want to use <code>man</code> pages. This means that we get low-quality man pages for GNU software, and then we don't have a good baseline for documentation, developers each try to create their own. The documentation that gets written is frequently either low-quality, or non-standard. A lot of man pages are auto-generated from <code>--help</code> output or info pages, meaning they are either not helpful, or overly verbose with low information density. This camp gets the worst of both worlds, and a few problems of its own.</p> +<p>Then we have the “GNU/Linux” camp, they use GNU software, but want to use <code>man</code> pages. This means that we get low-quality man pages for GNU software, and then we don’t have a good baseline for documentation, developers each try to create their own. The documentation that gets written is frequently either low-quality, or non-standard. A lot of man pages are auto-generated from <code>--help</code> output or info pages, meaning they are either not helpful, or overly verbose with low information density. This camp gets the worst of both worlds, and a few problems of its own.</p> </article> <footer> |