online documentation

[utzoo!decvax!duke!mad]

  I am chief babysitter for a system that is used primarily by non-
computer oriented people, who find commands, especially cryptic ones,
confusing at best.  I agree with yale-com!mp that the short unix
commands are here to stay, and I agree that expansion and/or linking
isn't really a solution.  In order to make things a little easier on our
basic user we designed an online documentation program called "coach",
which serves to purposes: it provides a listing of the commands our
users most likely need, and "coach" followed by a command name will
list the most used arguments to a command, a short blurb on the function
of the command, and an example.  Usually this all fits on a screen, and
the list of commands is piped through mc so it also fits on a screen.
Our system (an 11/40) won't support man, and we think it is more useful
anyway.  We also support "help" for the more advanced user who wishes to
attempt to find something in the manual.  We have found our program
particularly useful for documenting home-grown changes to system utilities,
or documenting homegrown commands.

It is a cute little program and doesn't take much space for the docs, it
just takes someone to write them.  We found it worthwhile.

Good Luck.                      Mike Dickerson
                                duke!dukgeri!mad