Lubos Vrbka wrote:
> 
> just one remark... in the sysinst's selection what to install, man is 
> called "online manual pages"... i think it's a little bit misleading (as 
> these pages are NOT online (if online has the usual meaning, i.e. 
> accessible through net on some server)
> 
> general question - why is it called so?
> 

I guess it's because before the ubiquity of the Internet, "online" meant
"on disk" in relation to manual pages. I'm pretty sure that USL and a
few of the other System V Unix vendors shipped printed copies of the
manual pages. I definititely recall a bookcase of dusty SCO binders at
my first programming job, and assumed they were the Unix equivalent of
the wall of documentation that came with VMS.

Chris
-- 
chris.wareham@iosystems.co.uk (work)
chris.wareham@btopenworld.com (home)