XCode man pages (to replace standard man pages)
XCode man pages (to replace standard man pages)
- Subject: XCode man pages (to replace standard man pages)
- From: David Hoerl <email@hidden>
- Date: Fri, 13 Apr 2007 16:22:51 -0400
Abstract: Apple should remove all man pages, and replace man with
something that can read the man pages contained in XCode (but where
are the pages???)
---
The standard man pages (obtained by running "man" from the command
line are woefully out of date, and often are incorrect or missing
information.
I have dutifully submitted a few documentaion bugs on this, but was
recently stunned when I read the reply to my latest submission (where
I had suggested a one line addition to help future programmers find
information that it took me 1/2 day to find). In essence, the reply
was its not necessary, develops can always use google to find this
information. Well, I HAD used google, but not the suggested "correct"
string that got the correct hit. In my googling I found other people
on this list and the darwin-users list who had also tried to get the
same info and failed, so I knew it just wasn't me. rdar://5119334
Later, I was doing a simple make on the command line, and needed a
printf format question answered. I did a "man 3 printf" and found
it's incredibly out of date - it doesn't even have long long in it.
Now, I happen to spend a lot of time in Terminal every day, and I
often use "apropos" to find section 2 or section 3 functions. But
once I have the page open, I really cannot count on the information
being accurate as the pages are so out of date.
So, I entered another bug, rdar://5128510 that suggests that Apple
just get rid of all the man pages if they aren't going to keep them
current. Really, if the company position is that these are not going
to ever get updated, why leave them around for people like me to use,
potentially incorrectly?
I got a nice response to this bug, saying it would be forwarded to
the appropriate group for discussion.
Then today, it occurred to me that I could just write my own routine
to output whatever XCode is using, so I can get the info from the
terminal. So I went poking around trying to find printf(3). If you
open this with the xCode document browser, you get what looks to be a
temporary .html file that was translated from a man page format (open
the page in the doc window, then right click and open it in a
separate pane, then cmd-click on the icon at the top of the window).
I did a "find /Developer -name '*printf*' -print" and all I get are
printf.h files.
So, the questions are:
1) are the man pages that the xCode documentation window shows in a
form that could be accessed outside of xCode?
2) if so, is there something that can already access them from the
command line?
3) will apropos work with these files, or is there a similar tool
that could do it?
---
I posted to this group and not users, since its mostly developers,
and non-cocoa developers, that want terminal access to man pages. In
particular, xCode does not provide a way to search JUST man pages as
apropos does, and I imagine its not just me that has found apropos
very useful in locating information.
if you feel strongly about this issue you could enter your own bug
and reference the second rdar bug above.
David
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