Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!wuarchive!cs.utexas.edu!ut-emx!nghiem
From: nghiem@ut-emx.UUCP (Alex Nghiem)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.aix
Subject: Re: AIX man command
Message-ID: <23152@ut-emx.UUCP>
Date: 14 Jan 90 06:46:50 GMT
References: <7975@portia.Stanford.EDU> <4083@brazos.Rice.edu> <1257@awdprime.UUCP>
Reply-To: nghiem@emx.UUCP (Alex Nghiem)
Organization: UTexas Computation Center, Austin, Texas
Lines: 22

In article <1257@awdprime.UUCP> @cs.utexas.edu:ibmchs!auschs!woan.austin.ibm.com!ron writes:
>Chuck's prior reply to this query is the basic answer that was given
>to me when I asked some people about this when I came to work here.
>Actually when you think about it, most people don't really need a
>local copy of the man pages when they are on a network, so why charge
>everyone for their distribution.

	I have heard comments about lack of the AIX man pages with the 
standard AIX distribution many times before. I am sure IBM 
knows well that the lack of man pages is another difference
that makes AIX different that the other guys. I think it would much 
better service to the customer if the man pages were part of the standard
distribution and that the customer can elect whether or not he wants to
install it. 
	When one uses UNIX systems from multiple vendors, one often
runs into slight differences in the operation of each vendors version. It
is much easier to determine and address these differences if the man is
available, whether or not the UNIX box one uses is stand alone or part
of a network. AIX is the only UNIX I have access to that is distributed 
without the man pages. Consequently it is much more trouble for me to work with
AIX that with the other guys. 
	My comments apply specifically to AIX on the RT.