Documentation improvements

Documentation improvements

[Samuel]

I am a newbie but my first message to the mailing list was not ignored. What
does that mean? I don't know.

In my first message I said: "I am new to this mailing list and to Cygwin. I
also have not used Unix for over a decade. I am familiar with C and C++ and
I have been using Visual C++
since the first version."

I have a web site where I have put things that I hope is helpful for others.
See:

http://www.cpp.atfreeweb.com

I think that many programmers experienced with Windows would like to become
familiar with Linux and other such Unix systems and that many of them (like
me) have not taken the time to dive in. I think CygWin is a useful way for
us to start. I have written something describing what I have encountered so
far and that might help others. I am interested in corrections, comments and
improvements. Any of it that can be useful in the CygWin web site can be put
there.

I have used the "Teal" color for a few things in my web page. That color is
not much different from the green color I use for most of the web site. I
used the slightly different color for things I have questions about or that
are comments that I am especially interested in getting some comments about
from this group. The following are the three installation items:

    - the option for specifying the installation directory
    - what the "defaults" are
    - what editor was installed

There are a few things that I am unfamiliar with that are so basic that I
should be able to figure them out myself. I will make more of an effort to
figure them out but if someone wants to help then will help. There are other
things I should be doing so I need to limit the time I spend on this. I will
attempt to revise my web page with answers such as that and hopefully it
will help others that are equally unfamiliar with Unix and CygWin. For
example, I espected to be able to do "help | more" but "more" was not found.
There also seems to be manual pages but I do not know how to look at them. I
tried using "man" but "man" is not found.



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Re: Documentation improvements

[Robert Aldwinckle]

"Samuel" <samuel@socal.rr.com> wrote in message
news:049201c231c0$3af5e2f0$a352a518@samsystem...
> I am a newbie but my first message to the mailing list was not ignored. What
> does that mean? I don't know.
>
> In my first message I said: "I am new to this mailing list and to Cygwin. I
> also have not used Unix for over a decade. I am familiar with C and C++ and
> I have been using Visual C++
> since the first version."
...

If another newbie's perspective is of any use I can
tell you a few more things that I have discovered
to help orient yourself with the package:

whatis  and  apropos    are two related commands
which seem to interrogate a partial concordance of
the documentation.  I'm still looking for a way to make
the results more complete.

The first time I installed  CygWin  man  did not work.
I can't remember the exact symptoms.  I waited for
a new version and reinstalled and then it started working.
Not all functions have man pages.

Info is another documentation tool.   Only a few packages
seem to use it.

Another way to get oriented heretical as it may sound
is to use  Windows  Explorer  and  its  Find  tool.
For example press F3 while open at the CygWin root
and enter  *.htm  and you will see that other packages
are documented as sets of browser pages.   Evidently
we have to get used to inconsistency.

Vim  and  emacs  are installed as editors.   I don't
know--trying to get familiar with all those keystrokes
seems more effort than is worthwhile.  The idea of
being able to integrate them eventually with shell functions
though seems to be my incentive for keeping at it.
I don't have a programmable editor on Windows
so I do far too much data analysis with shell commands.

Less  is the alternative to  More  that you need
to get used to.   More is referenced by the Less Man
page but is not found.   I can't remember what
tweaked me to using  less.   It may have been from
trawling through the FAQ but as I recall I didn't find
that as useful for getting familiar with the default
install as I might have expected.


HTH

Robert Aldwinckle
---





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Re: Documentation improvements

[Samuel]

"Robert Aldwinckle" <robald@techemail.com> wrote in message
news:ahm09t$gr2$1@main.gmane.org...
>
> whatis  and  apropos    are two related commands
> which seem to interrogate a partial concordance of
> the documentation.  I'm still looking for a way to make
> the results more complete.

Thank you, Robert. I will look at whatis and apropos.

> Another way to get oriented heretical as it may sound
> is to use  Windows  Explorer  and  its  Find  tool.

Yes, for us familiar with Windows, use of Windows for that purpose can be
useful.

> Vim  and  emacs  are installed as editors.

I did use emacs a bit over a decade ago but it is so different from what I
am accustomed to I quickly gave up. I might have used it more than I
remember; it might have been the editor supplied with an old C compiler.

It assume that Vim and emacs are not installed by default, since I don't
find it in my system. If I am correct that they are not installed by default
then I will find them but if I am incorrect then perhaps I need to daignose
why I don't find it in my system.

I originally created this message as a reply to the newsgroup and did not
notice that it was a reply to the newsgroup. I was unable to send the first
version so I created a new message that has the appearances of a reply to
the newsgroup.



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Re: Documentation improvements

[Dockeen]

"More is referenced by the Less Man page but is not found."

The "more" command is a fairly recent addition to Cygwin.  You
do have to elect to install it.  It is in the "text" category,
with a cute comment about it being "A primitive pager".
(setup has its share of laughs, one has only to look.  Hard.
Or have a weird sense of humor)

Now, "man" is also something that you have to designate to 
install, it is in the "Doc" category.

Which brings up a point, if you think you should have something,
but it does not run, and "which" does not find it, run setup,
and click open the categories, and see whether you got it 
installed.   This is always my first step in troubleshooting.
(Fat fingers like mine lead to a LOT of troubleshooting)

"It may have been from trawling through the FAQ but as I recall
I didn't find that as useful for getting familiar with the default
install as I might have expected"

Here is my approach.  When I install or update, I go down through
all the categories and click them open, see whats there, see whats
new, see what setup wants to install.  Now, if you watch carefully,
the available packages change fairly frequently.  This makes it
hard to keep documentation such as FAQ updated.  That is why I have
decided to keep an eye on things in this way.  Yep, it takes more
time, but I think it helps. And it saves you from asking one of
those classic Wayne questions like "how was I supposed to know
that wasn't installed"  :-)

Occasionally, I run across a command that makes me say "hmmm, I wonder
what that is".  Documentation within Cygwin is one place to look,
but don't overlook google.  Yes, you have to use your smarts to tell
good information from something an airhead like me might put up
on a website, but hey, you're using Cygwin, that's a high pass
filter on smarts right there.

Have a good night folks,

Wayne Keen

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RE: Documentation improvements

[Harig, Mark A.]

To find out what packages are available, click on the link 'Setup
Package Search' on the cygwin.com page.  In addition to listing the
packages that setup.exe will install, it allows you to to search the
packages for particular files.  For example, you could search for
'more.exe', and would be shown that you need to download the 'more'
package.  Instead, you might want to download the 'less' pager package.
Similarly, for 'man.exe'.

Reading the brief descriptions for each of the packages will give you a
clue about what they do.  You can click on the package name to get a
list of the files in the package.  You can then use setup.exe to
download the packages you think that you want.  Most packages contain
some documentation for them (man pages, info pages, etc.)  In addition,
check the directories /usr/doc for package documentation and
/usr/doc/Cygwin for Cygwin-specific documentation.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Samuel [mailto:samuel@socal.rr.com]
> Sent: Monday, July 22, 2002 4:42 PM
> To: Cygwin mailing list
> Subject: Documentation improvements
> 
> 
> I am a newbie but my first message to the mailing list was 
> not ignored. What
> does that mean? I don't know.
> 
> In my first message I said: "I am new to this mailing list 
> and to Cygwin. I
> also have not used Unix for over a decade. I am familiar with 
> C and C++ and
> I have been using Visual C++
> since the first version."
> 
> I have a web site where I have put things that I hope is 
> helpful for others.
> See:
> 
> http://www.cpp.atfreeweb.com
> 
> I think that many programmers experienced with Windows would 
> like to become
> familiar with Linux and other such Unix systems and that many 
> of them (like
> me) have not taken the time to dive in. I think CygWin is a 
> useful way for
> us to start. I have written something describing what I have 
> encountered so
> far and that might help others. I am interested in 
> corrections, comments and
> improvements. Any of it that can be useful in the CygWin web 
> site can be put
> there.
> 
> I have used the "Teal" color for a few things in my web page. 
> That color is
> not much different from the green color I use for most of the 
> web site. I
> used the slightly different color for things I have questions 
> about or that
> are comments that I am especially interested in getting some 
> comments about
> from this group. The following are the three installation items:
> 
>     - the option for specifying the installation directory
>     - what the "defaults" are
>     - what editor was installed
> 
> There are a few things that I am unfamiliar with that are so 
> basic that I
> should be able to figure them out myself. I will make more of 
> an effort to
> figure them out but if someone wants to help then will help. 
> There are other
> things I should be doing so I need to limit the time I spend 
> on this. I will
> attempt to revise my web page with answers such as that and 
> hopefully it
> will help others that are equally unfamiliar with Unix and CygWin. For
> example, I espected to be able to do "help | more" but "more" 
> was not found.
> There also seems to be manual pages but I do not know how to 
> look at them. I
> tried using "man" but "man" is not found.
> 
> 
> 
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> 
> 

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