vincet@mead.UUCP (Vince Tan) (03/08/90)
Does any one know why there are no man pages for all ISC 2.0.2 packages except text processing workbench? vince
djb@bbt.UUCP (beauvais) (03/20/90)
In article <641@mead.UUCP> vincet@mead.UUCP (Vince Tan) writes: >Does any one know why there are no man pages for all ISC 2.0.2 packages >except text processing workbench? How much disk space do you say you have? -- Dan Beauvais {backbone}!rti!bbt!djb BroadBand Technologies, Inc. (919)-544-6850 x 295 Box 13737 Research Triangle Park, NC 27709-3737
marc@dumbcat.UUCP (Marco S Hyman) (03/22/90)
In article <552@bbt.UUCP> djb@bbt.UUCP (beauvais) writes: > In article <641@mead.UUCP> vincet@mead.UUCP (Vince Tan) writes: > >Does any one know why there are no man pages for all ISC 2.0.2 packages > >except text processing workbench? > > How much disk space do you say you have? How do you print the man pages without nroff/troff? (That's a joke, I know they are distributed pre-formated). There was a long discussion on this topic several months (a year?) ago. I believe someone in authority let us know that AT&T charged extra, so Interactive et al. saved you some money by not including them with the software. This may also explain why you have to pay extra to get the printed man pages in the ``System V/386 Release 3.2 System Administrator's Reference Manual.'' Interactive has stated on the net that man pages will be available in some future release. // marc -- // {ames,decwrl,sun}!pacbell!dumbcat!marc // pacbell!dumbcat!marc@lll-winken.llnl.gov
zeeff@b-tech.ann-arbor.mi.us (Jon Zeeff) (03/25/90)
>>Does any one know why there are no man pages for all ISC 2.0.2 packages > >How much disk space do you say you have? Certainly enough to hold man pages. ~4-6MB should do it. I believe it's a licensing issue with AT&T (ie, more like "how much are you willing to pay for them").
palowoda@fiver.UUCP (Bob Palowoda) (03/25/90)
From article <X2=$5G#@b-tech.uucp>, by zeeff@b-tech.ann-arbor.mi.us (Jon Zeeff): >>>Does any one know why there are no man pages for all ISC 2.0.2 packages >> >>How much disk space do you say you have? > > Certainly enough to hold man pages. ~4-6MB should do it. I believe it's > a licensing issue with AT&T (ie, more like "how much are you willing to > pay for them"). This is going to be interesting. They price it too high people will buy the books. Nothing worse than being in competition with yourself. Another interesting point is that AT&T has the nroff man pages already to produce the books. I would guess that they gave Prentice Hall the same man pages to typeset the books. How much more are the pages worth on electronic media? Not much more then the books. Lets say their is about 4-6meg. About (eight 1.2meg floppies) x (5.00 disk inc. labor to make disks) comes out to 40.00. A set of manuals cost 300.00 or about 150 from other publishers. Seems like a tidy profit already. Selling them more than the manuals already would be like giveing the customer a new buthole. I can understand the cost of developing software. But I would really have a problem understanding why man pages would cost more then the books? Please don't come up with the arguement about the convience of being able to call up man pages. I hope AT&T is listening. They need all the help they can get when it comes to makeing UNIX more intuitive to learn. That is would be one way to increase the UNIX market share. I hope the lawyers don't try to figure the price. We will have 1 to 2 user versions of the man pages. ---Bob
cjeffery@cs.arizona.edu (Clinton Jeffery) (03/26/90)
From article <1030@fiver.UUCP>, by palowoda@fiver.UUCP (Bob Palowoda): > I hope the lawyers don't try to figure the price. We will have 1 to 2 > user versions of the man pages. This is great! Bob, you have hit the nail on the head. Have you considered a career in journalism? I hear Andy Rooney's position is real shaky, and I bet his job pays well... -- | Clint Jeffery, U. of Arizona Dept. of Computer Science | cjeffery@cs.arizona.edu -or- {noao allegra}!arizona!cjeffery --
brad@bradf.UUCP (Bradley W. Fisher) (03/26/90)
In article <X2=$5G#@b-tech.uucp>, zeeff@b-tech.ann-arbor.mi.us (Jon Zeeff) writes: > >>Does any one know why there are no man pages for all ISC 2.0.2 packages > >How much disk space do you say you have? > Certainly enough to hold man pages. ~4-6MB should do it. I believe it's > a licensing issue with AT&T (ie, more like "how much are you willing to > pay for them"). What are we talking about here ... hard copy or on-line man pages? From what I understand ISC makes you pay extra for the hard copy ... do they even have on-line man pages? Admittedly there are *some* of the hardcopy pages that come with the RTS, but they never seem to apply to what I need at any paticular moment. Then there is the Help facility which includes all of maybe 30 commands(I realize that module is of AT&T origin ... but it is worthless IMHO)? Now I recall one statment in this thread that suggested that ISC left these goodies out because of cost. And there has been alot of SCO bashing lately because their products cost more. I would just like to point out that SCO provides a *very* complete set of man pages (hard copy), and good on-line help (most commands on the system) with the 2.3.x version RTS XENIX. On-line man pages cost a mere $125 (I think ... don't have a price list on hand) and include *all* the programmers pages as well. I am curious how ESIX handles this ... I don't know anyone running it yet. -- I'm just a wanna be UNIX guru (IJWBUG) | Micro Maintenance, Inc. | 2465 W. 12th St. #6 -== Brad Fisher ==- | Tempe, Arizona 85281 ...!asuvax!mcdphx!hrc!microm!bradf!brad | 602/894-5526
geoff@tolerant.com (Geoffrey Leach) (03/26/90)
In article <X2=$5G#@b-tech.uucp>, zeeff@b-tech.ann-arbor.mi.us (Jon Zeeff) writes: >Does any one know why there are no man pages for all ISC 2.0.2 packages I checked this out a year ago when I first got into the UNIX/AT business. Here's the skinny. Neither AT&T nor ISC provide machine-readable man pages. ISC is rumored to have thought about it. They never told me what the reason was, but as AT&T lisences them seperately cost is surely a part of it. And demand too, of course.
root@maxed.amg.com (0000-Admin(0000)) (03/28/90)
In article <1990Mar26.154344.20055@tolerant.com> geoff@tolerant.com (Geoffrey Leach) writes: >In article <X2=$5G#@b-tech.uucp>, zeeff@b-tech.ann-arbor.mi.us (Jon Zeeff) writes: >>Does any one know why there are no man pages for all ISC 2.0.2 packages > >I checked this out a year ago when I first got into the UNIX/AT business. >Here's the skinny. > >Neither AT&T nor ISC provide machine-readable man pages. ISC is rumored to >have thought about it. They never told me what the reason was, but as >AT&T lisences them seperately cost is surely a part of it. And demand too, >of course. ************************************************************** ISC says the May 2.20 release SVR3.2.2 is to have manual pages. ************************************************************** -- Ed Whittemore uunet!maxed!ed American Micro Group 201 944 3293