[rfc][icedtea-web] javaws -version flag

[Omair Majid]

* Jiri Vanek <jvanek at redhat.com> [2014-03-06 11:29]:
> On 03/06/2014 05:15 PM, Omair Majid wrote:
> >* Jiri Vanek<jvanek at redhat.com>  [2014-03-06 11:14]:
> >>I dont think it is worthy. The current man pages are really *outdated* :(
> >
> >I don't follow. If the pages are outdated, shouldn't we fix that by
> >updating them? Are we abandoning the man pages?
> >
> 
> Yes we should. Only the good will is missing.

Abandoning man pages for 'good will'? I don't follow. If anything, we
make things harder for users.

>  First half of previous 8 months I was ignoring them willingly,
>  because I hoped to have the generated ones prepared for 1.5.

I don't know if generated ones are the magic bullet you think they are.
Either way you have to write the documentation. And some parts of the
documentation don't belong in code. Still, generated or not, we need
some place where users can find documentation.

> But this task was moved to 1.6 due to new D-I-D attributes

I would like to think that features are not considered 'complete' unless
they are documented.

> Also you may note - icedtea=web man page is missing (it is jsut copy
> of current (outdated) javaws.1)

I thought only the commands themselves have man pages. There is no
command named `icedtea-web` so there is no man page for it.
There is no man page for `mercurial` either, but there is for `hg`.

Where is this copy of javaws.1? I don't see it in our repo, and I don't
see it when I `make install`.

> , itw-settings manpage is missing - and
> it is HUGE man page, and newly policyeditor is missing.

For self-explanatory GUIs, I am not sure we need detailed man pages.
They mostly make sense for command line programs that take lots of
arguments and/or options so the options and arguments are properly
documented. Aside from the basics ('run itw-settings using the command
itw-settings', 'itw-settings allows you to modify setings graphically',
'file bugs at this bug tracker', 'config files are located here'), what
else do we need?

> For javaws x icedtea-web man page see a bug in bugzilla. I have jsut
> spend 10 minutes by trying to connect to bugzilal without sucess[1]

It's a private bug, but when I do log in, I don't actually see anything,
just your comment saying that you have linked icedtea-web.1 to javaws.1.
I think that's not ideal because:

- Man pages document binaries rather than packages
- You are completely leaving out the plugin :(

Thanks,
Omair

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