man pages: Still kicking
Had you asked me in, say, 1990, whether people would still be using (and tech writers/engineers would still be writing) man pages 17 years hence, well, I probably wouldn't have been interested enough in the question to formulate a response. But had I been able to muster the interest, I would've said, "No." (Or, "My God, I hope not.")
As it happens, in 2007, man pages are alive and kicking. In terms of hits on docs.sun.com, they are the most used of documentation. Of course, using web page hits to measure doc use is misleading. A user might dial up the ifconfig man page and spend eight seconds, checking on the syntax of that command. The same user might do the same with tar(1), dd(1), and find(1). Four hits. Then our user decides he wants to get to the bottom of the zones feature, so he downloads the PDF the relevant sys admin doc and spends the next two days combing through it. One hit. Man pages win 4-1.
The unreliability web-hit competition notwithstanding, the man pages are frequently used and, based on anecdotal evidence, even liked by our customers. So, 17 years hence, in 2024, will our customers still be using man pages? Maybe a more interesting question would be: will the process of GUI-ification of even sys admin-type programs proceed to a point where users won't be using text-based commands, thereby obviating man-page-like docs?
As it happens, in 2007, man pages are alive and kicking. In terms of hits on docs.sun.com, they are the most used of documentation. Of course, using web page hits to measure doc use is misleading. A user might dial up the ifconfig man page and spend eight seconds, checking on the syntax of that command. The same user might do the same with tar(1), dd(1), and find(1). Four hits. Then our user decides he wants to get to the bottom of the zones feature, so he downloads the PDF the relevant sys admin doc and spends the next two days combing through it. One hit. Man pages win 4-1.
The unreliability web-hit competition notwithstanding, the man pages are frequently used and, based on anecdotal evidence, even liked by our customers. So, 17 years hence, in 2024, will our customers still be using man pages? Maybe a more interesting question would be: will the process of GUI-ification of even sys admin-type programs proceed to a point where users won't be using text-based commands, thereby obviating man-page-like docs?
man pages will continue to live on for the simple reason that gui's don't do so well over 9600 baud serial consoles.
At 2 am, when i have CTO's and CIO's screaming at me over an issue on a production server, I need the manpages now, not 10 minutes from now after firefox and google come back with a search query.
Posted by James Dickens on November 06, 2007 at 11:36 AM PST #
Fads in documentation have come and gone (and some have even come back again), but we've always been able to count on man pages as a stable and reliable form of reference information.
Posted by Diane Plampin on November 06, 2007 at 11:50 AM PST #
well put!
Posted by Pattie Levinson on November 06, 2007 at 01:50 PM PST #
I have been using man pages since I started using the UNIX(R) operating system in 1992 and I continue to be grateful for their existence today.
In my experience, man pages are to software as the dictionary is to language. Just as I would never try to learn a language from the dictionary, I would never try to learn how to use a piece of software from the man pages.
BUT when I'm writing a sentence and I'm not quite sure of the exact spelling or meaning of the word that I want to use, I'll look up the word in the dictionary. Similarly, when I know more or less what I want to do, but I have forgotten the exact syntax of the command to type, man(1) comes to the rescue.
For as long as software has user interfaces and programmatic interfaces that are based on commands and functions, there'll always be a need for man pages.
Posted by Paul Davies on November 06, 2007 at 09:38 PM PST #
I have spent a lot of my life with man pages. Arguably, I would not have a career without Sun's man pages. So, I am a fan of them at this point. There is a lot to be said for basic text documentation in so many ways. Speed is the biggest thing. I also really hate the GNU infodoc system, if my connection is some feeble, intermittent thing, it gets wedged less with man pages than with the horrid, horrid GNU thing... If I sound a bit scarred, it's cause I am. Simple is good, simple means I don't waste what few packets, cycles, or even periods of reliable power that I have on hand.
I don't have anything against the web, or web documentation in all it's forms, but local a lot of the time is essential, and I do not want to have to depend on a browser either. The fewer dependencies to running the command that gives me the information, the better.
Posted by Tim on November 09, 2007 at 01:10 AM PST #