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Re: SEE ALSO fails
From: |
James K. Lowden |
Subject: |
Re: SEE ALSO fails |
Date: |
Sat, 30 Oct 2021 21:04:56 -0400 |
On Sat, 30 Oct 2021 14:48:46 -0700
Larry McVoy <lm@mcvoy.com> wrote:
> If James is suggesting that dangling links are not helpful, I find
> the opposite to be true.
I too have benefited from pursuing hints I found in SEE ALSO, even for
uninstalled software. I remember one weekend searching to for a free
implementation of ideal(1).
My example was just a starting point. If references to uninstalled
items are to appear in man pages, I do think they should indicate when
they're inaccessible via the man system. If I were a web guy, I'd say
no SEE ALSO link should end in 404.
I'm proposing we consider a tool that packaging systems could use to
eliminate dangling links. If instead of being simply deleted, they are
somehow marked, OK. What form should that take?
Simplest might be a static string (such as "(not installed)") appended
to each item. Or, they could be moved to another heading, or
subheading. They could be annotated with the .Nd line and/or homepage
URL, or the name of the package that contains it.
To be concrete, I'm asking the groff community how would you change
> .Xr mg 1 ,
to reflect the fact that there's no "mg" on this system?
To be clear, I'm actually fine deleting it, but I wouldn't insist. The
NetBSD base system includes editline(3), and (I assume) intentionally
doesn't mention mg. I would say that's SOP for curated pages presented
as a set. But that doesn't mean it can't be improved on.
--jkl