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by thayne 2242 days ago
> I think we should favor manpages over Stack Overflow, documentation over Google

these are not really comparable things. I definitely don't think that Stack Overflow should replace man pages, but I still find Stack Overflow valuable. It's value is in finding how someone else solved a problem similar to the one you had, or where you go to ask other developers for help when the your attempt at finding the needed information in the documentation has failed.

1 comments

I almost entirely agree, and I think the word "favor" wasn't the best choice. My opinion is that many developers will often consult Google or Stack Overflow before consulting a manpage or documentation or will only briefly consult documentation before a Google search. I'm definitely guilty of this, especially when I'm under a tight deadline, but I think it's a behavior that should be avoided when possible. Navigating documentation and/or manpages forces you to engage with the structure of the tool you're using, Google and Stack Overflow do not.