Newsgroups: comp.arch
Path: utzoo!henry
From: henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer)
Subject: manuals
Message-ID: <1989Jul17.232405.28105@utzoo.uucp>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
References: <125@inmos.co.uk> <1642@brwa.inmos.co.uk> <550@stca77.stc.oz> <270@gvlv2.GVL.Unisys.COM> <5029@ficc.uu.net>
Date: Mon, 17 Jul 89 23:24:05 GMT

In article <5029@ficc.uu.net> peter@ficc.uu.net (Peter da Silva) writes:
>So the UNIX User's Manual isn't a tutorial... big deal. It's one of the best
>*reference* manuals in the business.

I have long thought that one of Unix's most underrated contributions to
computing was the discovery that many commands could be documented quite
adequately for *reference* purposes in one page.  (Well, I must make one
reservation here:  this might have come from Multics or CTSS, which I've
never seen manuals for.)  As opposed to a 50-page manual, with one page
of information content, for each command.
-- 
$10 million equals 18 PM       |     Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
(Pentagon-Minutes). -Tom Neff  | uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu