Comment by scbrg

> I don't see a lot of benefit to using man pages other than "because that's how it's always been done".

Man pages are organized, categorized, indexed and searchable. It's a common format that can be read by multiple pagers (including dedicated GUI browsers for those so inclined). They're also available when the command might not be. There are definitely benefits over command --help other than the syntax of the invocation.

> I find pagers annoying because it's hard to switch back and forth between typing a command and the docs.

less -X

If people don't know about man, why not teach them? A simple line in the summary -h gives that says: For more information, read the man page: man foo.

> Plus, there's still the cross-platform argument.

This just makes me sad. I don't know exactly where we'd be if every computer system didn't feel it needed to be garbage just because Windows is. But I don't think it'd be quite as bad as where we are.