From:	Robert DOT Cross AT scottish-newcastle DOT co DOT uk
Subject:	Re: Help engine/file format (was CD-based distribution...)
21 Aug 1998 20:19:20 -0700 :
Message-ID:	<01J0UZU9Q33M000658.cygnus.gnu-win32@scottish-newcastle.co.uk>
Mime-Version:	1.0
To:	sarnold AT coyote DOT rain DOT org
Cc:	gnu-win32 AT cygnus DOT com

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sarnold AT coyote DOT rain DOT org wrote:
#It would be nice if the man command came with the base distribution 
#(or EGCS).  Or better still, a win32 X-man type shell with a 
#command list, search features,etc.
Agreed.

#Unless you have the latest PII, K6, etc, most current browsers are 
#slow (piggish), and it seems like Apache would have to be trimmed 
#down quite a bit.
What about lynx?

#(I'm not much of a coder myself, yet, so I love throwing this stuff 
#out) <grin>  How about text files with an interface to select 
#available help files and use grep to search with?  It's faster than 
#you might think, even on *lots* of files.  It could even be 
#configurable for multiple file formats (using a lynx base for the 
#HTML part?).
How about this -
Leave the documentation in it's current multiplicity of formats. Install
a cut down version of Apache, plus lynx or similar. Write *small* (?) 
CGI to run man2html et al to convert manual pages on demand.
This would give the best of both worlds, minimal manual (pun?) conversion,
plus the ease of use of HTML for the newbies, (and lazy folk like myself). The
disadvantage is that gnu-win32 would still have to be running to be able to 
access the information.

Opinions?

Bob Cross
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