man pages & SCO Xenix

[Phil Hughes]

In article <699 at nod2sco>, ericg at sco.COM (Mwa ha ha) writes:
> chip at vector.UUCP (Chip Rosenthal) wrote in article <385 at vector.UUCP>:
> ]As a side issue, I've never understood why XENIX took one suitably crummy
> ]convention (1 2 3 ... 8) and replaced it with another crummy convention
> ](C F M S ...).  

> I doubt anything will fix this.  The problem stems from chopping up
> Unix into different pieces: OS, Development System, and Text processing.
> If you did not separate the man pages is some other way than the
> (1,2,...8) scheme, when you bought the DS, you would have to alphabetize
> all the sections yourself.

I suggest doing what we did.  We publish pocket references for various
flavors of UNIX (yes, even XENIX, SCO has bought thousands from us).
We decided to include all of the commands for OS, Development
System and Text Processing in one booklet and indicate what package
they are from.  We use something like a dot for development system
and diamond for text processing.
Then, when you use the reference, if you have everything you don't
care.  If you don't have everything and you pick a command and then
realize it has a dot in front of it, you need the development system.

SCO could just include the man pages for all the programs marked
in such a manner.  They, ship all the other docs with each package.
It probably wouldn't increase the cost of the documentation package
very much and would be good advertising for the other products.

:r .sig

-- 
Phil    uunet!pilchuck!ssc!fyl