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Subject:do you write or edit man pages? From:Christi <christi -at- sageinst -dot- COM> To:TECHWR-L <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Thu, 10 Feb 2000 14:51:40 -0800
Hi,
I'm wondering if anyone writes or edits man pages as part of your job? The
first new set of man pages was just released (internally), and I asked to
see them. While they are generally ok; they are written in passive voice.
This bothers me. Rather than say "the daemon should be stopped to determine
the reason for lost contact", I'd rather it said "Stop the daemon to
determine the reason for lost contact". Is it common for man pages to be in
passive voice?
Also, these pages are just a few new ones to a whole system. So, I'm sure
the others are written as such. I'm not sure if it would be worthwhile to
edit these when the rest of it won't match. But then, I think, if I don't
start somewhere, they'll never get better.
Does anyone who works with man pages have any thoughts?
Christi Carew
Sage Instruments
Freedom, CA, USA
www.sageinst.com
