[MEncoder-users] Making manpage accessible

[Ilya Zakharevich]

[A complimentary Cc of this posting was NOT [per weedlist] sent to
Andrew Berg 
<mencoder-users at mplayerhq.hu>], who wrote in article <4C61B115.5030007 at gmail.com>:
> > ... But THIS attitude is very counter-productive.  It makes the
> > manpage unusable to (IMO) 95% of people who want to read it.  While
> > including a COMPLETE introduction is, of course, out of question, a
> > very concise launch-vehicle IS possible (therefore, is NECESSARY).

> It's not needed at all for the same reason word processor documentation
> doesn't need information on how to write good thesis papers and band saw
> documentation doesn't need information on making bird houses.

Sorry, but I do not find your analogies applicable at all.  Does anybody?

> > IMO, all that is needed is a list of possible ISSUES with video
> > encoding, and references to where the reader can get some starting
> > information about what the issue is about.  When this list is
> > finalized, it may be accompanied by references to mencoder's options
> > related to each issue.

> Some links on the MPlayer home page and a few "further reading"
> references in the man page would be appropriate and useful, but the man
> page is there to document the software, not what one should do with it.

Wrong.  Just look at the manpage: it already documents things people
could do with it.  (As most other well-written manpages do.)  My
suggestion addresses further steps in the same direction.

  [I assume that you meant COULD, and not SHOULD - as written, what
   you wrote does not make any sense in the context.]

Yours,
Ilya