Re: hard to read handbook.pdf in text system

On 2/16/23 15:01, Paul Dufresne wrote:
 > I have installed very recently from what was probably:
 > 
https://download.freebsd.org/snapshots/amd64/amd64/ISO-IMAGES/13.2/FreeBSD-13.2-PRERELEASE-amd64-20230204-d07eb716f35d-254363-disc1.iso
 > When I got at the end of installation I choosed to install the handbook.
 > When I booted on the system, I first searched in my home directory, 
then in /root, then after a while I saw the
 > link to it in motd (message of the day) after logging in.
 > I navigated to said directory to find a handbook in pdf format.
 > So I installed lynx, and read the handbook online. Was able to get to 
a working well enough graphical system.
"https://download.freebsd.org/doc/en/books/handbook/handbook_en.tar.gz 
will get you the html handbook as a download.

 > Other people have remarked the oddity of the thing (to expect people 
on a text system to read the pdf file that explain how to install the 
graphical system).
I feel the same. If I recall it used to be readable in text form though 
there were issues due to images instead of ascii art to express some 
concepts but I still found it useful.

 > I am asking here because you are supposed to be interested in 13.2 
development at this time if I understood right.
 > But maybe I am suppose to ask to documentation team... unsure.

Recent bigger changes were moving to asciidoc and git for general 
documentation management. Presume those friendly folks would know if 
asciidoc means we may see more formats available including console 
compatible documents again. If they don't speak up here, the ones I've 
interacted are friendly so may know if its a bug, current state, or the 
expected norm.

 > My wish would be that the installer would install a text version of 
the handbook.

I've been lucky in that times where I needed to refer to the handbook to 
fix what I broke, I had some way other than a local copy read through a 
GUI to do so. Sometimes that has been when the system was left in single 
user mode where I was lucky if I was beyond mounting /, let alone /usr. 
I'll take any tools and documents I can get if ever stuck at such a 
point so count me in for both that and it being viewable from installer 
(even if no fancy graphics or a bad but meaningful ascii art substitute. 
Admittedly its been a while since I saw the install media and had any 
serious unexpected single user fixing to do.