Re: Man Pages

["Bergerson, Carl A" <Carl -dot- Bergerson -at- UNISYS -dot- COM>]

        A minor correction to my earlier post.
> ---------
> From:         Bergerson, Carl A[SMTP:Carl -dot- Bergerson -at- UNISYS -dot- COM]
> Sent:         Sunday, January 25, 1998 8:23 AM
> To:   TECHWR-L -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU
> Subject:      Re: Man Pages
>
> John,
>
> I still owe you the Word 1 styles. I have to go through the archives
> at
> home to get them.
>
Sorry, I can't find them.

> But let me try to explain how manual pages work on most Unix systems.
>
> When the Unix system is first installed, most if not all,  the man
> pages are stored in nroff/troff source files. When users request the
> display of  man pages they are run through the nroff formatter with
> the
> an macro page supplied as a parameter. The output is redirected to
> both
> the requester's display and to a file. Subsequent requests for the
> same
> man page are provided from the newly formatted file rather than
> calling
> the formatter each time. (Implementation dependent, the list of
> compiled
> files may be pruned from time to time.) When the system sends the man
> page to the requester's terminal it usually uses the terminfo facility
> which does not have a parameter for italics (at least termcap, its
>
That's not true, they both have parameters for italics. It's just that
most terminals cannot display italics in character mode. So the terminal
descriptions in the termcap and terminfo databases use the reverse video
attribute for italics.

> predecessor, didn't), so it uses some form of video highlighting.
> That's
> probably what you thought were hyperlinks.
>
> That said, regardless of where you originate the file, you must
> include
> the nroff tags for the file to display properly. Formatting the file
> in
> Word or Frame and then saving as text causes the loss of all
> formatting
> and you still have to edit the text file to add the nroff tags. I find
> that creating the file on the Unix box is far simpler, but I'm pretty
> adept at vi. Most Unix implementations come vi and emacs and probably
> other text editors as well. Your Unix system administrator can give
> you
> help in this area. (If you have access to SCO Xenix or SCO Unix, they
> used to have a couple of files that took you through basic vi
> operations
> as you read the files in vi-very effective. Otherwise pick up the
> O'Reilly book for the editor you want to use.)
>
> Al Unix implementations I am aware of come with a spell checker and
> another utility called deroff which strips nroff tags from a file. Run
> the file through deroff, pipe the output through spell, and then
> redirect that output to a file or the printer. If I remember, the
> command line looks something like this:
>
> deroff mydoc | spell > error.log
>
> I hope this helps.
>
> Carl Bergerson
> Mission Viejo
> Product Information
> carl -dot- bergerson -at- unisys -dot- com
>
> > ----------
> > From:         John Posada[SMTP:posada -at- FAXSAV -dot- COM]
> > Sent:         Friday, January 23, 1998 2:33 PM
> > To:   TECHWR-L -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU
> > Subject:      Re: man Pages
> >
> > Chris...the part that worries me is that I recall seeing hyperlinks
> in
> > =
> > some man pages that appeared on the screen in reverse video. How do
> I
> > =
> > create that effect and how to I create the hyperlink? Was I
> imagining
> > =
> > something?
> >
> > John
> >
> > >Hey, guys...
> > >
> > >The time has come for me to figure out how to create set of UNIX
> man
> > =
> > =3D
> > >pages.
> > >
> > >Unfortunately, I don't know where to even start.
> >
> > I did man pages for UNIX:  I wrote them in MS Word on the PC
> platform
> > --
> > saved them to .txt.  I then filtered them to from DOS to UNIX.<<<<<
> >
> >
> > Are there specifics such as line length or is that taken care of
> when
> > =
> > its run through the UNIX text editor.  I also assume that when I
> open
> > =
> > and save in vi, that the PC end of line/end of file will convert to
> > the =
> > appropriate UNIX end of line/end of file characters ?
> >
> > >>>>>I checked the files via XEDIT -- VI is fine too -- to make sure
> > the
> > translation was ok.  Your UNIX guru *should* know that ASCII/text
> > files
> > need to run through a filter for proper used [on both sides of the
> > platform].
> >
> > My main thought in the exercise was to keep the files in a format
> > where =
> > I
> > could edit/spell check easy.
> >
> > You should check with the UNIX guru for name specifications of your
> =
> > files.
> > The program will "look" for the file in a specific location.
> >
> > [I used "Exodus" as my UNIX gateway.]<<<<<
> >
> > I use CuteFTP for my FTPing
> >
> > >>>>>However, you can ftp the files in and do the same.
> >
> > It was easier than using VI and hoping the spelling gawds were nice.
> >
> > John Posada, Technical Writer (and proud of the title)
> > The world's premier Internet fax service company: The FaxSav Global
> =
> > Network
> > -work http://www.faxsav.com      -personal http://www.tdandw.com
> > -work mailto:posada -at- faxsav -dot- com   -personal mailto:john -at- tdandw -dot- com
> > -work phone: 732-906-2000 X2296  -home phone: 732-291-7811
> > My opinions are mine, and neither you nor my company can take credit
> > for =
> > them.
> >
>
> Carl Bergerson
> Mission Viejo
> Product Information
> carl -dot- bergerson -at- unisys -dot- com
>
>
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