JtWdyP said the following on 11/19/2012 05:26 AM:
I note that some of the other posters seem to think you are not actually reading the {expletive deleted} manuals. But what I think I'm seeing is somebody having a hard time understanding the {many expletives deleted} manuals.
Many do when the come to Linux. See below.
I know that I almost always have a hard time understanding what they mean myself. I mean I can usually use them to remind me of something I used to know. But if they wanted me to actually learn something new from them, they would do better to include many more actual usage examples, instead of just describing the usage in such highly technical terms that it often merely confuse me.
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.
If I'm right all I can say is keep plugging, eventually you'll at least learn some of it. But they are right too. The "man pages" and "info documents" are usually your best source of information on a command. Unfortunately they seem to be written like college text books, with the expectation that the student will be guided by some professor or some such thing.
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. -- “Anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.'” ― Isaac Asimov -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org