On 11/19/2012 09:52 AM, Anton Aylward wrote:
<snip> Many do when the come to Linux. See below.
<snip>
Many man pages do give examples, but that is not their purpose. If they were how-to manuals they would be endless, and some of the 'technical dry' pages are long enough as it is!
Please don't confuse purpose.
Yes. 'how-to' publications are valuable; but references are important to and those should be short and to the point.
<snip> What you are saying, and what I can empathise with, is that Linux is a different culture. I have a similar problem with Windows or VM/CMS or the times I have to deal with other IBM systems :-( The underlying assumptions about what Is and Is Not and How Things Are Done is just to different. I once nearly came to blows with a Tandem Non-Stop admin until someone told me that on the Tandem all network serves are carried out by a single non-forking process. The model behind many other OSs is that processes don't fork because forking is too 'expensive'.
I've dealt with *NIX documentation for so long that documentation for other systems, even Windows, seems difficult to understand.
I suppose I'd have problems If I moved to China, Japan. Heck, I had enough problems in France and they drive on the same side of the road as we do here in Canada! And heck, in England people walk on the pavement!
But please, please, please, don't complain about the lack of 'how-to' guides when there are plenty included in the system documentation and there are more just a google away.
The issue with the {expletive deleted} manuals is that for a non-technical, ignorant, noob they are not written well. Most are written by the person that does the programming [ or at least that is my impression ]. The person my be the most fantastic, super, programmer in the world but they can't write manuals that non-technical, ignorant, noobs can understand. I can do a man [ whatever ] and spend hours trying to decipher what is presented. Might as well be written in Martian. Gogle will sometimes bring up something that is at least written in some earthly language. At least partially readable. Once in a while Google will find something that is written in plain, simple noob english. -- “The only difference between death and taxes is that death doesn't get worse every time Congress meets.” — Will Rogers _ _... ..._ _ _._ ._ ..... ._.. ... .._ -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org