[cups.bugs] Re: [LOW] STR #1830:http://localhost:631/help/options.html, thePrinting and Options page should come as a man page

[Roger Leigh]

On 2006-07-11, Michael Sweet <mike at easysw.com> wrote:
> wtautz wrote:
>> Michael Sweet wrote:
>>> [STR Closed w/o Resolution]
>>>
>>> We decided a long time ago that the detailed documentation would be
>>> available on the web interface and not in the man pages - it is too hard
>>> to maintain both sets of documentation.
>>>
>>> Link: http://www.cups.org/str.php?L1830
>>> Version: 1.3-current
>>> Fix Version: Will Not Fix
>>>   
>> I suppose if I can offer a solution you might accept it ? :-)
>
> If by "solution" you mean some sort of documentation generator, it
> will depend on the portability, etc.  That said, long man pages are
> much less usable than the same content in a browser - man doesn't let
> you scroll back and forth, print, or easily search the contents, and
> of course you can't use images or tables...

Regarding navigation: if you use less, it is quite easy to navigate.
less (in Debian) even does case-insensitive searching when viewing
manual pages.  Other viewers create hyperlinks and have the same search
capabilities you would get in a web brower.

Regarding printing: manual pages can be trivially converted to
PostScript using the grops postprocessor.  If the manual page was
written properly, it will give high quality output.  You can even make
full use of typefaces and styles.  I would have to say that printing
a manual page gives far better (and reproducible) output than printing
HTML from a browser.

You can certainly use tables: tbl works fine in manpages (.TS/.TE).

Images are rather more troublesome.  For really simple lines and boxes,
pic is possible, but may render badly.


Regards,
Roger

-- 
  .''`.  Roger Leigh
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