TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
Subject:Re: RE How to create UNIX man(ual) pages. From:John Posada <posada -at- FAXSAV -dot- COM> Date:Wed, 28 Jan 1998 09:14:23 -0500
Carl....
Maybe I was misunderstood (...like that has never happened before).
What I meant was that some man pages have some elements in them that others don't. I want a page that has the widest range of those elements. This way I can eliminate the elements that aren't appropriate to the content instead of starting with a bare-bones page and adding the elements from scratch.
I WASN'T referring to a total layout format. I know how near-and-dear to your heart these weird little pages are to UNIX-dweebs ;-}
>
> I'll be picking one of them with a format I'm happy with
>
John, please don't pick one you're happy with. Pick one that is
STANDARD. Man pages have been what they are for more than twenty years.
Please don't try to reinvent this wheel.
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.
HEY! Are you coming to the NJ TechWriter lunch? So far, about 10
of us are. Ask me about it.