[MPlayer-users] Re: Doc's Suggestion

Dean S. Messing deanm at sharplabs.com
Sat Jan 4 02:06:52 CET 2003


 :: "Dean S. Messing" wrote:
 :: 
 :: > Frankly, I'd love to see the comprehensive documentation written
 :: > up in "texinfo" format so that "info" pages could be generated
 :: > a la gcc, emacs, and a hundred other linux subsytems.  No GUI
 :: > web browsers necessary  Light fast, easily editable.
 :: 
 :: This would reqiure a viewer for that format to be installed. That's
 :: nonsense - IMHO. A good documentation has to be readable without any
 :: additional tools. I'd like to have a man page that can be viewed by
 :: using *any* nroff (not only the GNU one). I don't like Proprietary
 :: formats.

Huh?

======= =========== ========

medulla: deanm=> rpm -qi info

Name        : info                         Relocations: (not relocateable)
Version     : 4.2                               Vendor: MandrakeSoft
Release     : 5mdk                          Build Date: Sun 07 Jul 2002 03:20:03 PM PDT
Install date: Fri 11 Oct 2002 08:39:49 PM PDT      Build Host: no.mandrakesoft.com
Group       : System/Base                   Source RPM: texinfo-4.2-5mdk.src.rpm
Size        : 152580                           License: GPL
Packager    : Gwenole Beauchesne <gbeauchesne at mandrakesoft.com>
URL         : ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/texinfo/
Summary     : A stand-alone TTY-based reader for GNU texinfo documentation.
Description :
The GNU project uses the texinfo file format for much of its
documentation. The info package provides a standalone TTY-based browser
program for viewing texinfo files.

You should install info, because GNU's texinfo documentation is a valuable
source of information about the software on your system.

======= =========== ========

Looks pretty "Open Source" to me.  And it has come, standard, on
every Linux system I've ever run.

As for Texinfo being proprietary, that's the "nonsense" (as you call
it).  Texinfo is just a subset of TeX which has been Open Source since
Donald Knuth conceived it back in 1978 or so.

`Info' is also a standard subsystem of Emacs, which, last time I checked,
was Open Source also.  Emacs is the best place to use it because
of the powerful search mechanisms it has.  I can usual be where I want
before someone using Netscrape can have clicked on the first link.

Dean



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