[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

Re: Documentation Integration (was suggestion)



On Dec 15, 11:28am, <dave@lafn.org> wrote:
> Subject: Documentation Integration (was suggestion)
> On Mon, Dec 13, 1999 at 04:09:38PM -0900, Matt Barkdull wrote:
>
> This is all part of the problem of integration of documentation for
> Linux.  The material in the info pages needs to be made available in
> other formats and a search engine is needed to search every word of
> the manual pages, info docs, howtos, etc. all with one search command.
> It would be nice if docs that come with application programs (for
> example, the detailed gnu tar manual) could be included but one
> problem is that they are supplied in various formats.  One may try
> using grep at present but it's quite primitive.  One should also be
> able to restrict a search to certain subsets or types of documents in
> order to speed up the search.  Keyword searching on just the abstract
> (or the like) of each doc would also be useful.  David Wheeler has
> been looking into integration problems but more people are needed to
> work on this.

I've implemented some of the capabilities outlined above at SGI's
Tech Pubs  Library. You can give it a spin (Linux-specific "collection")
at - http://techpubs.sgi.com/library/tpl/cgi-bin/init.cgi?coll=linux

By default, the search spans the set of man pages, HowTo's, Guides/books,
and FAQs. You can also drill down into a category (a la Yahoo) thru
the series of links found below the search box. Once in a content
category, you can control various aspects of the query mechanism via
the functionality found in the search box.

I'd be very interested in any and all feedback. I'd like to provide
the tools "under the hood" back to the community, so that they can
either be used locally or thru a webserver; if there is sufficient
interest.

regards,




-- 
Greg Ferguson     - s/w engr / mtlhd         | gferg@sgi.com
SGI Tech Pubs     - http://techpubs.sgi.com  | 410-785-2334 
Linux Doc Project - http://www.linuxdoc.org  |


--  
To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to ldp-discuss-request@lists.debian.org
with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmaster@lists.debian.org