Re: Man pages Was RE: Structure for GUI & Command Line Input Doc

[Bruce Byfield <bbyfield -at- axionet -dot- com>]

"Stevenson, Rebecca" <Rebecca -dot- Stevenson -at- workscape -dot- com> wrote:
       
> It had never crossed my mind to do this. I don't have the foggiest 
idea *how* to do this. 

The basic UNIX program for producing man pages is groff/troff. Doxygen 
is one tool that is supposed to be able to produce web pages, and, if 
you do a web search, you can probably find others.

> Does it even make sense for engineering to ask us to provide 
installation instructions as man pages,

Since the product doesn't have a CLI, the request sounds quirky. I 
wonder if the engineers are simply following an old reflex that 
everythinghas to have a man page?

If the product did have a CLI, the request would make sense. Although 
man pages are used primarily for commands, I have some used for 
configuratin references. In fact, I've even heard of people using man 
macros to write dissertations, although I suspect that that is more a 
tour de force than a practical exercise.

>and if so, what would be involved in translating our Frame files to 
this format?

My guess would be that output in plain text, RTF, HTML or postscript 
would probably be needed by a man tool.

Hope these suggestions help.

--
Bruce Byfield 604.421.7177 bbyfield -at- axionet -dot- com

"'God bless Aunt Mary Moses
With all her power and might-o,
Send us peace in England,
Send peace by day and night-o."
- Traditional, Halston Furey Dance



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