Re: Modernizing Documentation format?

[Clinton Bunch <cdbunch@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

On 8/22/2025 8:35 AM, Bart Schaefer wrote:
> On Fri, Aug 22, 2025 at 1:01 AM Marc Chantreux <mc@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> > Well … if textinfo is important, then why not just write in textinfo
> > which is also a rich documentation format?
> That could be an option, but requires extra software to generate man
> pages, and a large part of the reason for using yodl was to structure
> the man pages somewhat differently than the info pages.
And then the texi format was abandoned by the yodl maintainer.  We 
basically maintain the ability of yodl to produce texinfo.  rst has some 
capability to output fragments specific to one output format, probably 
not as extensive as YODL since it is a macro system, but there if we 
need it.
>    I have not
> tried any of the info to man formatting tools.
>
> > * lot of people just don't use info
> >    * most just don't know it exists
> >    * the ergonomy of the info command is terrible
> > * info is pleasant just for people who installed emacs or vim plugins.
> Subjective opinions.  Info and DocBook are still the standard formats
> for GNU software.  Although zsh is not GNU, it's typically packaged
> with GNU-based systems.
The few times I have been able to use a GUI/HTML based browser for info, 
it has seemed a superior organization compared to man.  I was never able 
to really navigate the tty based info program, so I haven't made much 
use of it.
>