From: danubius@halcyon.com (Joseph R. Pannon)
Subject: Re: Corrupt 'tar' man page
Organization: The 23:00 News and Mail Service
Date: Sun, 10 Jan 1993 22:33:38 GMT

In article <1993Jan10.134826.23887@klaava.Helsinki.FI> wirzeniu@klaava.Helsinki.FI (Lars Wirzenius) writes:

>The first form of online docs for Unix was man pages.  They are nice,
>but could be better.  One alternative format for man pages is Texinfo,
>developed by the GNU Project.  Texinfo allows hypertext (links in the
>text to other parts of the document), has better readers (that allow
>following the links), not just less or more, and is better for writing
>longer documents in the form of books.  Texinfo is the preferred
>format of documentation for GNU programs, and the GNU people
>ultimately want to have all documentation in that format.
>
>Man pages and Texinfo are not compatible, and it is very non-trivial
>to convert Texinfo to a man page (although the other way can be
>automated).  Texinfo to man page conversion has to be done by hand.
>
>Therefore, there is little chance that you can get man to understand
>the Texinfo document.  You'll just have to live with two different
>forms of documentation.  Life's a bitch.

Thank you, Lars, for that informative reply. 

>However, assuming it is because nobody has written a tar man page for
>GNU tar, and you want it, you might want to remember how Linux has
>become what it is: people who want something, and find that it hasn't
>been done, do it themselves.  Doing something doesn't require knowing
>everything, it shouldn't be too hard to write a very basic man page
>for tar (after you know a little about tar).  Linux has not developed
>thanks to people who pop into c.o.l and telling people that such and
>such has to be done.

I read you loud and clear!  However, I take an exception to your
insinuation that in my post I was trying to tell you guys how things
should be done.  All I asked for was information.  I wasn't even sure if
it was only a problem with my setup, or it was SLS-wide.  How you could
construe this as criticism of the activists' work is beyond me!
Believe me, even if I don't start my posts with a tribute to the 
tremendous work you guys have done, I really do appreciate the
product.  As a matter of fact, when I brought up my X the first time, I
did post an upbeat message about how fast Linux was running the X server. 
(I didn't mention this one yet, but I even dusted off my old Sibelius
records!) 
But I think the greatest tribute to Linux is shown by the huge
interest it generated among people new to Unix.  The high scroll rate of
this news group is a testimony to that.  I can understand you (and some
others') frustration with the repeated questions on the same subject that
this increased interest brings, but that can also be looked at as the
price of success.  Besides, my question wasn't even one I've seen asked
during the last few weeks of monitoring this group, and it certainly was
no criticism.

>If anybody writes a tar man page, and wants it to be included in the
>Linux Doc set (when that becomes ready in a few years), send me a note
>and I'll direct you to the person who coordinates the man pages and
>other program specific documentation (I don't have his name handy at
>the moment, sorry).

I'm sure you can count for many of the current newbies to make our  
contributions later as we come up on the learning curve providing we don't
get our noses bitten off before we get there. ;-)

Thanks again for taking the time to respond in your (no doubt) busy
schedule, 
Joe Pannon