bentley

mdoc(7), which is the primary macro set used on BSD systems, is a 90s language (as opposed to a 70s language) with useful semantics that support both hyperlinking and featureful search, both on the web and in the terminal.

For example, here’s a search for “C functions beginning with ‘str’ and with return type size_t”: https://man.openbsd.org/?query=Ft%3Dsize_t+-a+Fn~^str&apropo...

On OpenBSD you can do the same from a terminal:

$ apropos -s 3 Ft=size_t -a Nm~^str

But the biggest value of manpages to me is somewhat independent of the underlying format: its quality as documentation. BSD systems have a strong tradition of cohesive usability, including good manpages. A lot of the manpage alternatives I see advertised in Linux circles (such as tldr pages or bro pages) are of little use to me, because OpenBSD manuals are thoughtfully written, clear, concise, complete, and have useful examples. The difference is very noticeable when I try reading manpages for programs I’ve installed from packages, which are often incredibly sparse or incredibly verbose, and lack examples in both cases.

The nifty features that come from the modern language and tooling used by BSD manpages are really just symptomatic of the overall care that BSD communities put into their documentation generally. I wish it were more widespread in the free software world.

On systems that use the mandoc implementation of the man(1) command, these semantics are preserved and accessible from within less(1). See my other comment: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43634894

This feature exists, on systems that use mandoc as the default manpage formatter and viewer (such as OpenBSD).

In HTML output, definitions for flags, environment variables, and other such things are converted to hyperlinks, and hyperlinks can point directly to them. https://man.openbsd.org/ssh#D

In terminal output, this same capability is used to create a ctags file, which is supported by less(1). On OpenBSD, I can type “man ssh”, then :tD to jump to the tag named “D”.

This relies on the mdoc(7) language’s semantics, so unfortunately it won’t work for manpages using the older man(7) macros. But nearly all BSD manpages are written in mdoc(7), and a significant minority of manpages from packages.

As an OpenBSD developer who frequently fixes portability issues in external software, this doesn’t match my experience. Upstream developers are typically happy to merge patches to improve POSIX compliance; often the result is simpler than their existing kludges attempting to support desired platforms like MacOS, Alpine/Musl, Android, Dash-as-sh, and various BSDs. It turns out a lot of people find value in relying on an agreed‐upon behavior that’s explicitly documented, rather than “this seems to work at the moment on the two or three distros I’ve tested.”

“Free software” does not imply copyleft, not even to the FSF. The MIT license is a free software license even by their definition.

> I honestly found your response not just flippant, but passive-aggressively rude to the original poster.

I didn’t read it that way at all. How would you have worded it in such a way as to sincerely express the stated sentiment without coming across as passive‐aggressively rude?

For every book, Standard Ebooks provides a hyperlink to the original scan, a hyperlink to the original transcription, and a full revision history in which all spelling updates have been clearly marked. To me, this already seems to be going above and beyond—most ebook repositories provide less. I can’t imagine that the marginal benefit from keeping multiple parallel branches would be worth the cost in volunteer time and labor, when maintaining pristine first editions isn’t even a goal of the project.

Fun fact, the “open” in OpenBSD doesn’t refer to open source licensing, but to an open development process, including the ability to anonymously checkout the CVS repository without an account, which was a novelty in the 90s.

<samp> would be more semantically appropriate.

> How many times have you had an idea guy come to you with a "great idea for an app" if only they could find someone to program it for them?

Many. And I love it when those people code something up with Scratch, Matlab, or even Excel. Even though I personally would dislike the aesthetics of the result, I’m much happier to see other people enjoying computers the same way I enjoy them (i.e., by using them to solve interesting problems) than if I insisted everyone do so using my preferred “real” programming languages.

Well, this divine decree isn’t talking about food. It’s actually a metaphor for Christianity opening its doors to Gentile converts instead of just Jews. This is how Peter himself interpreted it:

27 As Peter talked with him, he went inside and found many people gathered together.

28 He said to them, “You know how unlawful it is for a Jew to associate with a foreigner or visit him. But God has shown me that I should not call any man impure or unclean.

29 So when I was invited, I came without objection. I ask, then, why have you sent for me?”

…

34 Then Peter began to speak: “I now truly understand that God does not show favoritism,

35 but welcomes those from every nation who fear Him and do what is right.

36 He has sent this message to the people of Israel, proclaiming the gospel of peace through Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all.”

A better passage would be Mark 9:17, which explicitly talks about food:

14 Again Jesus called the crowd to him and said, “Listen to me, everyone, and understand this.

15 Nothing outside a person can defile them by going into them. Rather, it is what comes out of a person that defiles them.”

17 After he had left the crowd and entered the house, his disciples asked him about this parable.

18 “Are you so dull?” he asked. “Don’t you see that nothing that enters a person from the outside can defile them?

19 For it doesn’t go into their heart but into their stomach, and then out of the body.” (In saying this, Jesus declared all foods clean.)

20 He went on: “What comes out of a person is what defiles them.

21 For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come—sexual immorality, theft, murder,

22 adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly.

23 All these evils come from inside and defile a person.”

Last year:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40032473

Can’t find anything from “years ago,” though. So maybe my search skills are weak, or maybe I confabulated the memory of finding others, so I’ll withdraw that. Either way, I hope you agree that this thread (now rightfully behind a flag) is all played out.

> How many times have I ever attributed this site [to jcs]?

I don’t keep track of people’s HN comments—but I noticed one time some months back, and figured someone should point it out next time. :)

[edit: struck “found several”]

I don’t care one bit about the code of conduct conversation you’re having. Just found it funny that you’ve been attributing this site to jcs for years based just on a common surname.

It might! But unless jcs changed his appearance and his accent since I last met up with him in Chicago, this is one of the millions of other people named Stein.

I don’t think OpenBSD is clamoring for code contributions from the companies with proprietary SSH forks. Just money to support continued development.

> Use GPLv3 or AGPL then. If you want companies to "give back" when they use your code, put it in the licence.

Seems like a poor choice given that projects like MongoDB try out AGPL for this reason and then later switch to nonfree licenses like SSPL. OpenBSD is not interested in that—whether its attempts to raise funds through goodwill work out or not, OpenBSD will always be free software.

My general experience has been that it’s great at turning rare crashes into frequent crashes, which are much easier to fix.

This is “stein”:

https://media.ccc.de/v/36c3-10519-a_systematic_evaluation_of...

Doesn’t look like jcs to me.

Zero‐days are worth less if they’re for a platform so insecure that zero‐days are easy to find.

There are none. Japan is in the midst of a 20‐year public domain drought (2019–2038), like the US from 1999–2018 and Canada from 2023–2042, because they extended the copyright duration from life+50 to life+70 due to pressure from the EU.

Aozora Bunko does receive new public domain works, but only ones whose copyrights had already expired by 2018.

> If I see someone shoplifting from Walmart, no I didn't.

So to take a recent example from my city (one of those cities so full of rampant petty theft that stores now inconvenience everybody by locking up toiletries), you don’t have a problem with this rich asshole with a $150,000 salary and his two disrespectful, disruptive teenagers stealing steaks and Monsters from Walmart?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0DoAkzdQig

The passport card is also an option, one that’s small enough to fit in a wallet. It can be used to cross land borders, and to fly domestically (but not internationally).

Unlike most driver’s licenses, a passport card doesn’t expose one’s address. This makes it a great form of ID to use in non‐airport situations as well.

Yes, I mentioned that.

Even within the last millennium powerful and accomplished civilizations like the Inca survived and excelled without writing. I think a better lesson to take from this is that though humans are inherently communicative and inventive, these characteristics don’t depend upon written communication, and that writing is not an obvious invention even if we can see elements of it in similar inventions like quipu.

> Under the Food Allergen Labeling and Consumer Protection Act, there's 8 groups that MUST be labeled: milk, eggs, fish, shellfish, tree nuts, peanuts, wheat and soybeans.

Nine groups, since 2023: the FASTER Act mandates labeling sesame as well.

Amtrak can be decently comfortable by coach, and the ability to stand, walk around, change cars, and (on Western routes) vary seating position by visiting the lounge car outclasses Greyhound in every way.

There’s no intellectual property law that prohibits me from hiring an expert to reupholster my chair.

I think a lot of people reasonably believe that “buying” digital content provides continuous, permanent access to that content, as opposed to the common alternative of either paying for a time‐limited “rental” or for a monthly streaming subscription that obviously expires access as soon as one stops paying.

Such people are taken by surprise when it turns out companies can take away your “bought” content simply by virtue of changing licensing agreements or corporate structure without public input. Some recent cases:

• Crunchyroll and Funimation merged. People who had “permanent” digital copies purchased from Funimation lost them.

• Sony’s license for Discovery Channel content was not renewed, so all Discovery videos people had purchased (most notably, 20 seasons of Mythbusters) were removed from customers’ libraries.

• Ubisoft shut down the servers for The Crew and removed it from purchasers’ Steam libraries, despite the presence of a 20‐hour single‐player campaign that was online only for no good reason.

Maybe people will get used to this and consider all purchases ephemeral. I hope not. That’s why I buy and advocate for DRM‐free media.

Do people of Estados Unidos Mexicanos count as estadounidense?

The source of this terminology difference is that continents have no universal definition, only societal convention. Romance language–speaking countries tend to teach the six‐continent model with a single America, whereas Anglophone countries like the UK, Australia, and USA teach the seven‐continent model with North and South America. Neither side is wrong, since there’s no universally agreed upon idea of what the continents are, only convention (and neither convention matches the current geological consensus either). The equivalent term to Spanish “America” in English is “the Americas,” not “America.” My Brazilian friends consider themselves “American,” but I’ve never met a Canadian who did.