[PATCH app-xdm 3/4] man: provide info even when features are missing at configuration time

Gaetan Nadon memsize at videotron.ca
Sun Aug 22 04:45:18 PDT 2010


On Sun, 2010-08-22 at 10:17 +0200, Mark Kettenis wrote:

> > There is no harm done in providing this information and stating when
> > it is applicable.
> 
> I disagree.  
> 

I don't have a strong opinion on that. Help me out with good examples on
how other man pages deal
with a situation where the content might vary based on the computer
where the software is installed.
I think this is this only module in xorg that does that. If this is
preferable, then perhaps other modules should 
do so as well. Some have several configure options.


> > +This resource is valid only when the arc4random() function
> > +has been detected at installation.
> 
> How should a non-technical know whether arc4random() is present on the
> system?
> 

Related to my question above, is that the role of the man page? A more
common situation is platform information.
Should the man page display only information relevant to the platform on
which it is installed? My experience with past projects is that all
information was given with some platform indication.

What also makes me think it is not common practice to customize
documentation, is the lack of support for doing so,
either in man pages, html, pdf or DocBook.

Thanks for taking the time to reply.
Gaetan
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