>Think about it. There is only one man page for xterm. I fyou type "man xterm" with no section number you get that man page. If there existed an xterm(7) page, you'd still get the xterm(1) man page by default. So why the hell write the (1) notation every time you type the word xterm?
Because the convention exists to define the type of the component. It's a handy convention, and I'm betting there are a few people reading this who have never used anything other than GNOME terminal so appending the section number immediately helps the reader to place the component, otherwise they'd have to look it up. etc
So, if I don't know anything but Gnome terminal, and don't know what xterm is, if I see "xterm", I have to look it up. However, if I see "xterm(1)", I don't have to look it up?
Strange.
(And how did I get to the situation in which I know what (1) means, yet I only know Gnome terminal and don't know what xterm is?)
(What about the fact that xterm(1) is also a hyperlink in the sumitted page? You could change the anchor text to "xterm(foo)" and it would still navigate to the correct man page with one click.)
Because the convention exists to define the type of the component. It's a handy convention, and I'm betting there are a few people reading this who have never used anything other than GNOME terminal so appending the section number immediately helps the reader to place the component, otherwise they'd have to look it up. etc