From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: "Robert Thorpe" Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.help Subject: Re: Why I can't use `info' in emacs? Date: 15 Dec 2006 06:57:13 -0800 Organization: http://groups.google.com Message-ID: <1166194633.486698.321520@n67g2000cwd.googlegroups.com> References: <458268D7.6020203@163.com> <1166191335.058714.266970@80g2000cwy.googlegroups.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: dough.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" X-Trace: sea.gmane.org 1166197232 21430 80.91.229.10 (15 Dec 2006 15:40:32 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@sea.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Fri, 15 Dec 2006 15:40:32 +0000 (UTC) Original-X-From: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Fri Dec 15 16:40:30 2006 Return-path: Envelope-to: geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([199.232.76.165]) by dough.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.50) id 1GvFAj-0003P2-MI for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Fri, 15 Dec 2006 16:40:29 +0100 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1] helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1GvFAj-0004iO-4H for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Fri, 15 Dec 2006 10:40:29 -0500 Original-Path: shelby.stanford.edu!newsfeed.stanford.edu!postnews.google.com!n67g2000cwd.googlegroups.com!not-for-mail Original-Newsgroups: gnu.emacs.help Original-Lines: 62 Original-NNTP-Posting-Host: 163.244.62.65 Original-X-Trace: posting.google.com 1166194675 18799 127.0.0.1 (15 Dec 2006 14:57:55 GMT) Original-X-Complaints-To: groups-abuse@google.com Original-NNTP-Posting-Date: Fri, 15 Dec 2006 14:57:55 +0000 (UTC) In-Reply-To: User-Agent: G2/1.0 X-HTTP-UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.7.10) Gecko/20050716 Firefox/1.0.6,gzip(gfe),gzip(gfe) X-HTTP-Via: 1.0 EMF1ASPROXY03 Complaints-To: groups-abuse@google.com Injection-Info: n67g2000cwd.googlegroups.com; posting-host=163.244.62.65; posting-account=hWoAPxMAAAAnBKSBz1ZivwUPPjEuve7bvVCHZQ8rhrluPfwcBJd92w Original-Xref: shelby.stanford.edu gnu.emacs.help:143970 Original-To: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org X-BeenThere: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Users list for the GNU Emacs text editor List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Original-Sender: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Errors-To: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.help:39574 Archived-At: Hadron Quark wrote: > "Robert Thorpe" writes: > > > It's not documented by Emacs, it's documented in the Info docs that > > come with GLibc. > > I installed the glibc info package on my ubuntu system. restarted > emacs. Here are some outputs from the info pages for glibc and the man > pages for printf: > > (a) man page using manual-entry(current-word): > > ,---- > | PRINTF(3) Linux Programmer's Manual > Surely the man pages are superior in this instance for a programmer? It depends. The GLibc manual is odd in that it's maintained in both TexInfo format and Man format. The TexInfo manual is used to generate the HTML manual. Sometimes the Man is better than the info, often it's the other way around. In this case Info returns much less documentation. However, the info manual is structured a little differently. Hit "u" from the node where you are and you'll see all the other stuff in the same section:- * Formatted Output Basics Some examples to get you started. * Output Conversion Syntax General syntax of conversion specifications. * Table of Output Conversions Summary of output conversions and what they do. * Integer Conversions Details about formatting of integers. * Floating-Point Conversions Details about formatting of floating-point numbers. * Other Output Conversions Details about formatting of strings, characters, pointers, and the like. * Formatted Output Functions Descriptions of the actual functions. * Dynamic Output Functions that allocate memory for the output. * Variable Arguments Output `vprintf' and friends. * Parsing a Template String What kinds of args does a given template call for? * Example of Parsing Sample program using `parse_printf_format'. Hit 'u' again and you'll get more info on I/O functions. The Info manual explains all sorts of things like customizing printf that the man-page doesn't cover. The man-page is quite thorough in this case, but it is a little confusing in one respect, It says "Linux Programmer's Manual". I have no idea why it says this, since printf is provided by Glibc. Perhaps it dates from the time of Linux 2.1 when Linux had a different C library. More likely it's been written by someone in the Linux project for continuity purposes, because people expect it there from the days when Linux had it's own Libc. If you are looking at the same man page as me, then it documents many printf like functions, but not quite all of them, not parse_printf_format for example. Often the best manual depends on the function(!) The person who has written the code tends to document it well in the manual they themselves use.