[Pan-users] Pan Docs 070101

[Douglas Bollinger]

As we all realise, Pan could use some more documentation.  The only real
centralized source of docs is at the wiki, here:

http://www.darrenalbers.net/wiki/index.php?title=Pan_FAQ&oldid=1412

This is a fine start, but a program as big and complex as Pan can really use
some extensive online help.  So I decided to take a crack at it.

You can download the first release of Pan Docs here:

http://doug.freeshell.org/files/pan_docs070101.tar.gz

Right now, my docbook translator seem to be a little borked, so I've only
include the docbook file itself in the tarball.  Later on I'll include a HTML
version of the docs as well.

If you use Gnome, you can easily view the file from the command line with
"yelp pan-docs.xml".

The pan-docs needs help in several areas:

Grammar:  Yeah, it's not the best.  Beyond the usual spelling/punctuation
errors, it's sometimes hard to write a succinct definition for a Pan command.

Errors:  It's quite possible I've described a function or command incorrectly.
Nobody seems to use Pan in quite the same way and there are quite a few Pan
features I've never used or really known about until a few weeks ago.

Omissions: Something might have been forgotten.  I can think of 1 thing right 
now. :)

This is just a preliminary version and I'm greatly interested in feedback from
current Pan users and gurus. Suggestions and corrections welcome. Either reply
here on the list or send an email to me personally.  

-- 
If I allowed "next $label" then I'd also have to allow "goto $label",
and I don't think you really want that...  :-)
             -- Larry Wall in <address@hidden>