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: 18 Dec 2006 05:12:20 -0800 Organization: http://groups.google.com Message-ID: <1166447540.507199.23610@l12g2000cwl.googlegroups.com> References: <458268D7.6020203@163.com> <1166191335.058714.266970@80g2000cwy.googlegroups.com> <1166206305.278573.25520@n67g2000cwd.googlegroups.com> <1166438641.220766.75180@n67g2000cwd.googlegroups.com> <7d56hbbw2.fsf@gmail.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: main.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" X-Trace: sea.gmane.org 1166473519 18541 80.91.229.2 (18 Dec 2006 20:25:19 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@sea.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Mon, 18 Dec 2006 20:25:19 +0000 (UTC) Original-X-From: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Mon Dec 18 21:25:15 2006 Return-path: Envelope-to: geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([199.232.76.165]) by ciao.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1GwIlR-0006R3-JW for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Mon, 18 Dec 2006 14:42:45 +0100 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1] helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1GwIlQ-0004CO-6P for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Mon, 18 Dec 2006 08:42:44 -0500 Original-Path: shelby.stanford.edu!newsfeed.stanford.edu!postnews.google.com!l12g2000cwl.googlegroups.com!not-for-mail Original-Newsgroups: gnu.emacs.help Original-Lines: 50 Original-NNTP-Posting-Host: 163.244.62.65 Original-X-Trace: posting.google.com 1166447544 5884 127.0.0.1 (18 Dec 2006 13:12:24 GMT) Original-X-Complaints-To: groups-abuse@google.com Original-NNTP-Posting-Date: Mon, 18 Dec 2006 13:12:24 +0000 (UTC) In-Reply-To: <7d56hbbw2.fsf@gmail.com> 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: l12g2000cwl.googlegroups.com; posting-host=163.244.62.65; posting-account=hWoAPxMAAAAnBKSBz1ZivwUPPjEuve7bvVCHZQ8rhrluPfwcBJd92w Original-Xref: shelby.stanford.edu gnu.emacs.help:144085 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:39709 Archived-At: Hadron Quark wrote: > "Robert Thorpe" writes: > > Hadron Quark wrote: > >> "Robert Thorpe" writes: > >> > Hadron Quark wrote: > >> >> Eli Zaretskii writes: > >> >> > >> >> >> From: Hadron Quark > >> >> >> Date: Fri, 15 Dec 2006 15:25:55 +0100 > >> >> >> > >> >> >> Surely the man pages are superior in this instance for a programmer? > >> >> > > >> >> > How is the man page superior? > >> >> > > >> >> > >> >> Did you look at the excerpts which came up from the context. For a > >> >> programmer bringing up the API it is blatantly obvious, in this case, > >> >> which first stage info is more useful. > >> > > >> > The most common reason I have for looking at API docs is to remind me > >> > of the order of arguments in a function. Mostly I can remember the > >> > functions purpose. We're all different. > >> > > >> > >> Hence the man page is superior :-; > > > > For this particular purpose both contain the same information. > > > > The Man page contains:- > > int printf(const char *format, ...); > > And the Info page:- > > -- Function: int printf (const char *TEMPLATE, ...) > > > > No they dont. Speaking of my own usage of docs I said:- "The most common reason I have for looking at API docs is to remind me of the order of arguments in a function." This was the topic under discussion. From that point of view both the man page and info node are similar since they give the prototype of the function in the first few lines of the response. > The man page is the complete man page for printf. Not really. The man page documents only a few of the capabilities of printf and friends that are specified by standards bodies. If you want to read about all their capabilities you must use the info pages or HTML pages.