In article <XFMail.971209191526.root@garbled.futureone.com> you write:
> # + How-to's are logically separate from "system maintenance and operation
> #   commands"
> 
> Which is why I vote against section 8.

It's also why I vote against 7. How-to's are more important enough (and,
I hope, will one day be numerous enough) to  deservetheir own section.

7h is marginally better, but still not right. 3 vs 3f makes sense;
they're both for library functions, but of a slightly different kind.
"how-to's" and "stuff that doesn't belong anywhere else" don't seem
related to me.

> # + Some people are confused by, eg, adduser(8), which they think is a
> #   program.
> 
> Perhaps it just needs to say right in the beginning "This is a how to NOT a
> binary"

If it were in a how-to section, that'd be more clear from the start.

> I don't think we should use the 0.  I'm sure it will be more useful for
> something else eventually

That's kind of my feeling.

> I personally don't see why you wouldn't want it in section 7.  It is a section
> for "miscelaneous" things.  Its not really used other than explaning how to use
> groff and the like.. and those are "kinda" how-to's..

But they aren't really how-to's. They explain commands within those
packages, rather than a how-to style step-by-step.

> If you really wanted to..  we could make a help section.. like /usr/share/doc..
> and fill it with these sort of how tos.  The problem with this is you lose the
> man interface to it..  If it had to be it's own category.. I would suggest
> something like H for HELP or wotever..

I agree about /usr/share/doc (which someone else -- Hubert? --
mentioned). Anyone who knows anything about unix knows man. OTOH,
even experienced sysadmins coming from other systems man not think to
check /usr/share/doc. Another benefit of man is apropos.

I think weshould actually be moving stuff out of /usr/share/doc into
manpages, but it's not an easy task.

I vote for section H.  Or, if it's deemed appropriate to have two
sections for user and sysadmin how-tos, which might be a good idea (like
1 vs 8), I'd vote for section A (administrative procedures) and H (user
how-tos).