Re: [OFFTOPIC] Info files vs Man pages

[Clayton Weaver <cgweav@eskimo.com>]

Note:

If I am looking at the man page for some function, and this isn't quite
the one I wanted, how do I find the one I do want if I have some keyword
that I know is mentioned on the one that I want but I don't what the
actual function name is?

With info, you do

  ctrl-s keyword

and it searches the rest of the currently open subtree for you. I can't
count how many times this has been useful with glibc functions, where I
knew the general subject area but not exactly which part of it held the
tidbit of information about correct usage in some particular context.

When you know exactly which function it is and all that you need to see
are the argument list and return value, man pages are faster. When you
know what it is about, what sort of programming it is used for, but not
the exact name or which one from among several alternatives is actually
the best function in a particular code context, info files seem to me
far more convenient (once one has used info enough to get beyond
"backspace instead of up arrow for scroll up keyboard navigation
irritation syndrome").

Regards, Clayton Weaver  cgweav@eskimo.com  (Seattle)