In a previous article, agulbra@nvg.unit.no (Arnt Gulbrandsen) says:

quoted text
>In article <1993Jul21.123416.4479@raven.alaska.edu> floyd@hayes.ims.alaska.edu (Floyd Davidson) writes:
>>>$ help dir
>>>
>>>DIRECTORY
>
><output deleted>
>
>>It probably is a matter of personal taste... and might also have to do
>>with just how indepth one wants to learn about things....
>
>Right, my taste goes to having accessible documentation... how many VMS
>users have practical access to the gray wall?  Referring to this-and-that
>volume isn't much help if it's locked in the system administrator's office.

I've used bot VMS and Unix systems quite extensively, and have always
preferred unix over VMS...  Generally speaking, I find VMS to be a pain in
the neck to use, although the help system is nice...  However, such a
system is fairly easy to implement to any system, and there is a similar
program available for linux - although I have not yet tried it...  (Or
remember the name or site for it either... *grin* )

quoted text
>>>How does one browse through that efficiently?  How does one print it out?
>>Or how does one search for a string?

With GREAT difficulty...  Generally speaking, I found that the only way I
could print help topics was to figure out *exactly* what I wanted, and in
what order I had to issue the commands to get there...  Then redirect the
output, which quite often meant that I had to look up the help on the VMS
output redirection commands as well...  I *often* wished redirection on VMS
was as easy as it is in Unix - I also wish that you could pass parameters
to VMS programs easier then it requires them...  Having to define an
external command just to be able to pass parameters to it seems like a
waste of time...

quoted text
>>And, how do I get here from there?  Say I'm in LSE and want info on some
>obscure SET thingy, how do I get the shell help database rather than the
>LSE one?  SET something?

The help is hierarchial, but you have to keep in mind that the options for
help are not always consistent across different help topics... 
Unfortunate, but that is the way it goes...  Then, there are the topics
(notably DEC UCX) where the general help info tells you to either read the
manual, or go into the app and then use the help system built into that
app.  (Which, for all intents and purposes, acts the same way as generic
VMS help does...)

All things considered, I am much happier with unix...  :-)

Just my $0.05 worth...

Kris
-- 
Kristian Stark
kstark@garbo.uwasa.fi           kristian.stark@f710.n260.z1.fidonet.org