Description: I write a number of my own programs, and have always had a bit of a problem writing the manpage, I have used the excellent 'ManEdit' but development on this has been stalled for a number of years. So I finally decided to write my own and this is the result. This is only the first draft and there is LOTS to be done, so bugs and suggestions are welcome, please click on the 'About' button in the program for my email address.
Development version is now available on Github: https://github.com/KeithDHedger/ManPageEditor git clone https://github.com/KeithDHedger/ManPageEditor.git
Please see the BUGS-ETC file for instructions on reporting bugs etc. Bugs reported on these boards or sent as PM's will be ignored.
Gnome-terminal can NOT be used for the preview you may need to install xterm
*** NEW *** Now has support for building on GTK3, use --enable-gtk3 to configure. *** NEW ***
Added 'Import System Manpage' to file menu. Now just Select it from the menu and type the name of the manpage you want and optionally the section and the file is found and imported.
Added some support for non-English man pages ( the LANG env should be set ie LANG=pl_PL manpageeditor ).
Added 'New From Template' to file menu. Added optional gzipping of exported manpages to prefs.
Added 'Use underline' to prefs this shows italic text as underlined text as most terminals do.
Added Import manpage.
Note importing a manpage WILL lose some formatting so if you import a page and then export it again there will be some minor visual differences, this can't be helped and is not a bug so please don't report it as such
Added 'Preview' to file menu, default is to preview in an xterm but you can change that in the prefs.
Added support for subsections, subsection names are displayed lower cased in the GUI but are upper cased for the exported manpage.
To install: ./configure --prefix=/usr --enable-aspell make sudo make install
If you don't have aspell installed then don't enable it!
To Do:
Write a proper help file - DONE. Add proper formatting instead of using text based tags - DONE. Add optional zipping up of man pages - DONE. Add preview option - DONE. Add import manpage - DONE. Make a proper icon - DONE. Add a mime type for documents - DONE. Add document icon - DONE. Add 'Advanced' menu for fine control of formatting.Last changelog:
0.1.1 Fixed makefiles when using DESTDIR= ...
0.1.0 Added back modify font in gtk3 version, but will be broken by gtk devs again! Had to add question icon to message dialogs, cos ubuntu is broken. Because gtk3 stupidly doesn't let you set a font for a widget programatically, setting the font in the prefs has no effect in gtk3 use a css instead, I guess. THIS DOES NOT APPLY to gtk2 build. Added back stock item names stupidly removed from gtk3. Fixed bug when trying to delete non existent section. Fixed segfault on doing cut/copy when there is no selection. Removed split view option. Made gtk3 compatable via configure option.
0.0.19 Fixed temporary preview file not being removed on closing the preview window. Fixed double free segfault when opening .mpz files after using template file. Now uses 'safe' temporary folders. Now uses 'safe' temporary filename for preview, no longer clashes with other open instances. Updated autogen.sh file to remove autom4te.cache folder and aclocal.m4 before rebuliding.
0.0.18 Added 'GROFF_SGR=1' to man formating command for older systems. Added check for 'groff' package in configure. Added '--enable-nroff' option for configure, for older man versions. Fixed older versions of man using overstrke instead of bold, preventing import of man pages.
0.0.17 Corrected abot box info. Updated websit and email links. Slight correction to .desktop file. Fixed missing directory bug, thanks to Kay Parker for that. Redone soure code licence preamble. Removed forced CFLAGS and CXXFLAGS. Added to Github: https://github.com/KeithDHedger/ManPageEditor
0.0.16 Fixed minor export to pdf bug.
0.0.15 Set window title to file path of current file. Fixed numerous bugs when opening/saving/closing system manpages. No longer clears current manpage if new open/import etc cancelled. Better support for importing BSD/generated manpages ( like tar,sftp etc ). Fixed segfault when trying to open non editor archive ( .mpz ) file from command line.
0.0.14 Fixed selecting wrong section when importing system manpage. Added 'Auto' to drop down list when importing system manpage. Fixed segfault when error opening file Redone .desktop file. Set window icon properly - AGAIN!.
0.0.13 Removed annoying flashing caused by building/destroying spell check dialog. Fixed 'Spell Check Document' in tab popup. Fixed spelling in template file. Code clean.
0.0.12 Now prints whole manpage to pdf or lp.
0.0.11 Added 'Import System Manpage' to file menu. Added Hack to importing manpage to strip rubbish from end of last section Fixed copyright symbol bug - may only work for unicode. Got rid of a load of sed's for importing manpage. Added man section drop down to importing system manpage. Removed copyright bug fix. Added some support for non-English man pages ( the LANG env should be set ie LANG=pl_PL manpageeditor ).
0.0.10 Added 'New From Template' to 'File' menu, at some later stage I may add multiple templates to this. Added 'GZip Man Pages' to prefs to gzip exported manpages as some linux distros prefer ( Arch for instance ). Bug fix for showing as underline ( minor but annoying ).
0.0.9 Added 'Use Underline' to prefs to show italic as underlined ( most terminals do this ). Redone document icon. Redone application icon. Fixed problems with file names when importing manpage. Added different sized icons for mimetypes. Updated help file. Fixed properties bug for badly formed .TH in some manpages.
0.0.8 Added import manpage.
0.0.7 Added preview. Added 'Terminal Command' to prefs for showing preview, defaults to 'xterm -e '. 'Export Man Page' etc now dimmed/undimmed properly depending if file open. Fixed various 'dirty' bugs ie 'Save' buttons not getting undimmed. Added subsection support, subsection tab names are now shown as lowercase ( but are still uppercased for manpage ). Rename dialog now shows old name! Add file filter for 'Open' ( *.mpz/application/x-maneditdoc ).
0.0.6 Fixed MAJOR memory leak. Added gpl-3 licence to docs and about box. Fixed bug when 'Category' not set in properties. Export manpage now automatically sets the name of the manpage to the lowercased name in properties and creates it in the same dir as the opened file and appends the category number. Added 'Export As' to save exported man page to different file/folder. Fixed 'Close'. Fixed 'New'.
0.0.5 Added document icon and mime type. Added bold/italic to format menu now displays as bold and italic same as manpage. Format for files changed to save bold/italic test. Code clean. Fixed loads of bugs in string slicing. Fixed icon path not getting added to desktop file. Fixed exec path not getting added to desktop file.
https://software.opensuse.org/download.html?project=devel%3Atools&package=manpageeditor
For Tumbleweed and Leap 42.2 (I hope) out-of-box repositories are fine too.
Thanks for this.
If you are the package maintainer please email me direct and I will make sure that you are informed when I update KKEdit, my email address is in the 'About' box or the source code.
IMO it's mature enough for distribution, as a matter of fact since 0.0.13 ManPageEditor is available on Rosa official media.
Thank you for sharing your work.
Thanks I can't think of anything extra that needs to be put into it except maybe more or user designed templates, and maybe menu or drop down button to insert little used code, lists and so on, but I've had no one ask for that so I'll hold off for a while, but always open to suggestions:)
Sorry for the late answer but after a "fight"
I've manage to push my git on oMandriva-2013.0 so ManPageEditor is available ,
also on oMandriva contrib media.
A big thx goes to ABF global admin.
###################################
Just a thought , aspell should be "promoted" from --suggested-- to --required--
just in order to have a pretty complete ( and only one.... :D ) graphical tool for
linux man-pages management IMO, it's more then necessary .
Thx again for sharing your work.
I decided to make aspell optional as some people would not have it installed or would use their own spell checker also I do not know how well aspell is being maintained I gather it's an older program but I could be wrong, and so may not be easily available, adding the --enable-aspell option is easy enough so I think I will in this instance keep it how it is, of course anyone maintaining a package for it could make aspell a required dependency, but that would be up to the maintainer and the packaging system used.
roger that , I'll ask for testing on spell checkers on our ML
just to have the most maintained one , but aspell works pretty nice to me... old or not....
Thx again.
Hi
I've build few rpms for oMandriva2013 RosaLTS and RosaFresh available on MRB:
http://mrb.mandrivausers.ro/index.php?search_for=manpageeditor&search_submit=Search
Can you please fix the desktop file: path/icon , Encoding, Version... if you care to see my fixings according to desktop-file-validate from xdg.org:
https://abf.rosalinux.ru/symbianflo/ManPageEditor/blob/master/manpageeditor.spec (see # menu entry in my spec).
Thank you very much for your work will be very useful for all developers, +1 from me.
Awesome tool
Happy to make changes etc but can you email me direct please, my email is in the about box and the README file, these forums are not really set up for proper bug tracking.
Not too sure what you want can you give me a bit more detail especially about your build script as I don't use rpms so the format is not clear, what exactly is wrong with the icon path?
You can find debian packages for i386/amd64 here:
http://apt.nanolx.org/index.php?dir=pool%2Fmain%2Fm%2Fmanpageeditor%2F
Since it only has minimal dependencies (gtk+, gtksourceview, aspell) those packages are likely to work on any recent debian-based distribution (ubuntu, aptosid, kanotix etc)
Ratings & Comments
20 Comments
https://software.opensuse.org/download.html?project=devel%3Atools&package=manpageeditor For Tumbleweed and Leap 42.2 (I hope) out-of-box repositories are fine too.
Thanks for this. If you are the package maintainer please email me direct and I will make sure that you are informed when I update KKEdit, my email address is in the 'About' box or the source code.
IMO it's mature enough for distribution, as a matter of fact since 0.0.13 ManPageEditor is available on Rosa official media. Thank you for sharing your work.
Thanks I can't think of anything extra that needs to be put into it except maybe more or user designed templates, and maybe menu or drop down button to insert little used code, lists and so on, but I've had no one ask for that so I'll hold off for a while, but always open to suggestions:)
Sorry for the late answer but after a "fight" I've manage to push my git on oMandriva-2013.0 so ManPageEditor is available , also on oMandriva contrib media. A big thx goes to ABF global admin. ################################### Just a thought , aspell should be "promoted" from --suggested-- to --required-- just in order to have a pretty complete ( and only one.... :D ) graphical tool for linux man-pages management IMO, it's more then necessary . Thx again for sharing your work.
I decided to make aspell optional as some people would not have it installed or would use their own spell checker also I do not know how well aspell is being maintained I gather it's an older program but I could be wrong, and so may not be easily available, adding the --enable-aspell option is easy enough so I think I will in this instance keep it how it is, of course anyone maintaining a package for it could make aspell a required dependency, but that would be up to the maintainer and the packaging system used.
roger that , I'll ask for testing on spell checkers on our ML just to have the most maintained one , but aspell works pretty nice to me... old or not.... Thx again.
Glad you like it I aim to please :)
Hi I've build few rpms for oMandriva2013 RosaLTS and RosaFresh available on MRB: http://mrb.mandrivausers.ro/index.php?search_for=manpageeditor&search_submit=Search Can you please fix the desktop file: path/icon , Encoding, Version... if you care to see my fixings according to desktop-file-validate from xdg.org: https://abf.rosalinux.ru/symbianflo/ManPageEditor/blob/master/manpageeditor.spec (see # menu entry in my spec). Thank you very much for your work will be very useful for all developers, +1 from me. Awesome tool
Happy to make changes etc but can you email me direct please, my email is in the about box and the README file, these forums are not really set up for proper bug tracking. Not too sure what you want can you give me a bit more detail especially about your build script as I don't use rpms so the format is not clear, what exactly is wrong with the icon path?
Thanks.
thanks
0.0.9 thanks
you're welcome.
I just love the new icon , just a beauty, thank you.
You can find debian packages for i386/amd64 here: http://apt.nanolx.org/index.php?dir=pool%2Fmain%2Fm%2Fmanpageeditor%2F Since it only has minimal dependencies (gtk+, gtksourceview, aspell) those packages are likely to work on any recent debian-based distribution (ubuntu, aptosid, kanotix etc)
Wow! that was fast! I assume you like it! Don't forget to vote.
Yes, I'm usually not writing manpages for my projects, but this little thing seems it can bring to write them now. :) Uploaded packages for 0.0.6.
Updated to 0.0.11 (did not leave out any previous version, though).
Thanks hope u like the new bits.