Re: [rfc] Add help text to start-up text

Pedro Alves
2013-06-13T09:12:20Z

On 06/12/2013 08:50 PM, Phil Muldoon wrote:
> This patch proposes to add a few items to the GDB start-up text to
> provide some indication on where the user can find help.
>
> I did not add the wiki and manual URLs to configure et al as I am not
> sure that is needed (I guess GDB packagers might have an opinion
> here).
>
> Also I am not sure if anything actually parses the initial output of
> the GDB start-up text and if adding these lines will affect that. So
> I am seeking comments.
>
> What do you think?

I think at least the help and apropos bits are going to be super useful.
I like that a lot.

> + fprintf_filtered (stream, _("The GDB manual can be found online at:\n\
> +<http://www.gnu.org/software/gdb/documentation/>\n"));
> + fprintf_filtered (stream, _("The GDB wiki can be found online at:\n\
> +<http://sourceware.org/gdb/wiki/>\n\n"));

IMO, putting only one url here would be enough, and would make this
more condensed. I don't think users need to care about the fact that
some documentation is in a wiki. We should add a link
to the wiki to <http://www.gnu.org/software/gdb/documentation/>. There's
more than the manual there even.
We could then just say something like:

(I suggest the imperative, like the help/apropos sentences, which turns
out shorter too.)

"Find the GDB manual and other documentation resources online at:\n\
<http://www.gnu.org/software/gdb/documentation/\n"

The url we hardcode in GDB stays there forever (as in, people will
use the first gdb release that includes it for many years), so having
a single point of entry is more flexible.

> + fprintf_filtered (stream, _("For help, type 'help'.\n"));
> + fprintf_filtered (stream, _("Type 'apropos word' to search for \
> +commands related to 'word'.\n"));
> }
>
> /* Print the details of GDB build-time configuration. */

--
Pedro Alves