Re: where are docs for "ex"

[lark@world.std.com (Lar Kaufman)]

Hmm, looks like my email edit got scrambled.  Sorry about that.  The manpage
database is called "whatis" (usually "whatis" command is an alias for "man -k"
or "apropos" on a unix system) so you need to run "makewhatis" (or possibly
mkwhatis on some implementations) in order to build the manpage database.
The data collected in the database is taken from the summary line of the 
manpage, plus keyword line information if that has been built into the 
manpage.  I've been thinking about the need to put some of this data back 
into the manpages; at one time unix users depended on manpages a great deal
and documentation was enriched to use the available tools, but in the Linux
and FreeBSD worlds, many users aren't aware of these more subtle features of
unix, nor are software developers.  And if they come from a GNU universe, 
they are likely to be more familiar with Info pages, which are less tailored
for text-oriented utilization.  

Indeed, I will be happy to start building a repository of enriched manpages
and utilities for text and text-to-voice rendering, so if anyone wants to
contribute, you can pass your files to me.  I'll have to see whether I can
get my own homepage set up next week to allow retrieval of the pages; I'll
try to set up an ftp archive on ftp.walden.com if my services administrator
will cooperate.  

 -lar

"This ain't no party, this ain't no disco, this ain't no fooling around. No
time for dancing or lovey-dovey, I ain't got time for that now. I sent a
message through the receiver, hope to get an answer someday. Why stay in
college? Why go to night school? Thought I'd be different this time." -D. Byrne