On Tue, 9 Dec 1997, Tim Rightnour wrote:

: # - There is only one section digit left (0), which might be better user
: #   for something else (user introduction or unix novice documentatiuon or
: #   something)
: 
: I don't think we should use the 0.  I'm sure it will be more useful for
: something else eventually

0 would not work anyway, as it is currently used to indicate "preformatted
manual page".

: # - The only alternative to 0 is a letter. The only precedent for this I
: #   know of is Tcl's section 'n'.

Actually, single digits are no longer required.  We had (do we still have?)
a section 3f, though empty, for future Fortran library documentation.  It
was a distinct section just like any other.  What we really need is:

- man to accept the SVR4-style '-s' option to indicate a section, which
accepts more than just one digit (using BSD syntax for this works in
conjunction with our current man(1) implementation, but is a little bit of
breakage on the BSD 'standard' for man(1));

- a section such as 7h for how-to documents, searched after sections 1, 8,
and 6, but before the rest listed in man.conf;

- a manual page intro(7h) to describe the how-to section.

Section 7 by itself is most often used to describe file formats and
directory/file structures fof non-specified files (such as the man pages for
the ms, me, and mdoc macros, and the release(7) man page describing the
layout of the release media).  A section such as 7h would probably be
better.

=====
== Todd Vierling (Personal tv@pobox.com; Business tv@lucent.com)
== Vierling's Axiom: The revolution won't be televised; it will be posted.