On Thu, 28 Nov 2002 01:40:11 -0600, ABrady said: > > > > Secret hacker rule #11: hackers read manuals. > > > -- > > > Regards, > > > > > > Steve Sykes > > As for the secret hacker's rule, I work for a living. I don't have > > time, patience, or inclination to read hundreds of pages of poorly > > written documentation with no boolean search capability just to find > > the one tidbit that might relate to the problem I'm having. Sorry; > > it's my pet peeve. Where I work, the coding is not complete until the > > documentation is (b-trieve) indexed. > Granted, it may be a bit intimidating to have to go through tons of > documents to find answers. But many, including me, won't just hand you > the answers you seek without first wanting you to show that you're > serious about using Linux. Something as simple as this will usually get > something. Things that are more involved may not. > > Generally all that some like me ask is that you do some of the work. We > (I) won't just hand you the answers outright or you'll never learn > anything. If not learning anything is what you want, there are platforms > suited to those purposes. Linux isn't one of them. > > However, if you show an inclination toward trying to figure out how to > do things on your own, and you find yourself stumped or unable to locate > suitable documentation, we'll (I'll) bend over backward to help. > > Lack of time is a suitable excuse. But it won't always work, especially > if it appears to be overused. > > Therapy is expensive, popping bubble wrap is cheap. You choose. Thank you for the thoughts and the earlier information. My response really was directed to Mr. Sykes. His message appears to add nothing but his signature to your message. I am, therefore, perplexed. Did he mean to add something that would help? Was he reiterating your message in an attempt to say "me too?" Or, was he trying to suggest that it's all so simple and I should RTFM? For the most part, I agree with you. I wouldn't be a developer if I didn't like to figure things out. My peeve isn't with you -- or those like us -- who don't want to abet peoples' laziness. In my practice as a developer and manager, I truly believe -- and insist -- that the project is not finished until the documentation is finished... and the documentation ain't finished until, at the very least, it is keyword indexed. The Linux community frequently presents it's documentation as HTML pages with a hyper-linked table of contents. There is no mechanism for searching the entire set of html pages for the keywords that will lead me to the answer I seek. This, in my opinion, is not acceptable documentation. The man pages, because of their very narrow scope, are no better. The list archives are a gold mine of information but also suffer from extremely limited search capability. Help files, generally, don't exist. This is the ONE area where MS has the advantage of Linux. Now, I'd better don my asbestos suit. P.S. chbg still does not work for me. -- Randy -- Psyche-list mailing list Psyche-list@redhat.com https://listman.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/psyche-list
