17 Nov
2018
17 Nov
'18
12:16 a.m.
On 11/16/2018 09:55 AM, Paul Winalski wrote:
I agree with Grant.
;-)
If you want to know what a particular command does and
what its options
are, man pages are fantastic.
Agreed.
Though, some man pages can still feel overwhelming. Bash and Zsh (full)
man pages come to mind.
If you are a new or casual user trying to find out
what command(s) to
use to accomplish a particular task, the man pages are an exercise in
frustration and futility.
I tend to equate it to trying to learn to program (read: logic behind
programming) and a given languages (read: syntax, structure, idioms,
etc) at the same time, you're functionally dealing with two
interconnected variables in an equation that are almost inseparable.
You almost need to learn other languages to start isolating the the
logic from the syntax by replacing the syntax with different syntax.
IMHO it's a LOT easier to have an idea what you want to do and then find
out how to do it than trying to do both at the same time.
Other OSes have done a better job in that area (the
VMS and DTSS HELP
commands come to mind). IMO ideally one should have both--a generalized
"help" command for those trying to find out what command to use, and
"man" as reference material. UNIX and Linux have never had a proper
help facility. Or at least I never was able to find it.
I like the sound of that as I start dabbling with OpenVMS. :-)
I've always liked to find some how-to / tutorials as a starting place to
give broad overviews and then quickly migrate to and supplement with man
pages to learn command specifics and behavior. The how-to provides the
logic and the man pages provide the syntax.
--
Grant. . . .
unix || die