Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/12/84; site mit-prep.ARPA Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!allegra!mit-eddie!mit-hermes!mit-prep!mellon From: mellon@mit-prep.ARPA (Ted Lemon) Newsgroups: net.wanted,net.sources.d,net.unix Subject: unix help routines Message-ID: <34@mit-prep.ARPA> Date: Mon, 26-May-86 00:23:13 EDT Article-I.D.: mit-prep.34 Posted: Mon May 26 00:23:13 1986 Date-Received: Tue, 27-May-86 06:56:34 EDT Organization: The MIT AI Lab, Cambridge, MA Lines: 32 Xref: watmath net.wanted:8865 net.sources.d:232 net.unix:7972 ?6c > I am interested in help routines for the unix system. The manual is > ok but is very difficult if you don't know already what you are looking > for. What I am interested in is a menu driven help routine similar > to VMS help. Upon invocation, this routine would spit out a list of > topics and would prompt the user for a topic then a subtopic, etc. > Has anyone done anything like this? Is anyone currently working > on something like this? Are there any more redundant questions I can > ask? ?6c Something like what you are looking for is already available. RMS has put together something called TexInfo, which combines Knuth's TeX with the original DECsystem-20 (10?) Info program. The idea is that you can create one document which looks like a manual when you format it for printing, and yet can be formatted so that it can be traversed in a tree-like fashion, like VMS help only better. TexInfo comes with GNU Emacs, which is available on 1600 BPI tape from the Free Software Foundation for a nominal charge ($150, I think), or from your friends for free. _MelloN_ -- Ted Lemon Project GNU of the Free Software Foundation UUCP: {}!mit-eddie!mit-prep!mellon INTERNET: mellon@prep.ai.mit.edu ORGANIZATION: Project GNU, Free Software Foundation, 1000 Mass. Ave., Cambridge, MA 02138, USA +1 (617) 876-3296 Also: New Media Graphics Corporation 279 Cambridge St., Burlington, MA 01803 HOME: 18 Kennedy Drive, North Chelmsford, Massachusetts