On Monday 02 June 2003 12:15, Theo v. Werkhoven wrote:
* Sun, 01 Jun 2003, jsowden@americansentry.net: <snip>
I am a newbie at this, and one of my complaints has been the use of the 'nix language to explain something. Consider giving your text, section by section, to someone who has never used Linux. Have them read your text, then explain to you how to perform the task described. There are technical nouns used in explaining that are used a verbs, leaving the newbie lost.
It's not only Unix/Linux, every specialization has it's own dictionary of wtf-s and [e]tla-s. Newbies just have to get used to it, and use the available help to get into the 'scene'. You can't expect a 30 year old specialization to change its habbits because newbies feel lost (a medicine course doesn't change the Latin words into english for new med students either).
I have to disagree with you a little on this one. For example, it is common to say things "cat the file", which for a newbie is very confusing because they are not aware of the fact cat is a command and that the expression means to "display the contents of the file using 'cat' command". Yes, if we choose we can continue to speak in terms that the average use does not understand, thus loosing many to Windows where you don't need that special vocabulary. Also I think your example of a "medicine course" in appropriate. If I were a first year medical student, then I would not expect the professors to change the vocabular. However, the better comparison would be a freshmen biology course. Yes, in such cases, the vocabular **is** changed in order to ensure that it is at the level of most of the students.
There are also other suttleties (sp?) in linux. If you change a config file,
$ echo suttleties | ispell @(#) International Ispell Version 3.2.06 08/01/01 word: how about: subtleties
often you must execute a command to put the new config data into play. This needs to be explained.
These are admin tasks, not Joe Luser's
Sorry, but if I were a newbie, or a simple user of Linux I would be insulted by that comment. It is extemely demeaning to refer to someone as a "looser" simple because they are "only" a user. It is the apparent elitist attitude that many seem to have that turns a lot of people away from Linux. I feel that such terms and your overall attitude are very condescending. Second, Linux expects the user to be much more of an administrator than Windows. Therefore, knowing that simply changing a configure file is not sufficient is something that a newbie should be told. How else are they going to know.
Finally, as we all know, this operating system has more documentation than any other to date (afaik). Lots of doc does not mean that a newbie can understand it.
Most of which is written as reference, not as tutorial. A man-page of bash does NOT teach anyone how to use bash, just where to find some (hidden) option to change bash's behaviour.
Hmmmmm. Obviously you are not refering to the HOWTOs. They are intended to explain HOWTO do something and thus are tutorial in nature and not just reference. Although I would agree that the man-pages are references, "most" of the documentation I am aware of it tutorial in nature and not just for reference. So much stems from the time when there wasn't any documentation on how to do things so people wrote *tutorials* telling you how. Besides it does not change John's comment that a large amount of documentation does not necessarily mean a newbie can understand it. Therefore, I fail to see the value of your comment. Regards, jimmo -- --------------------------------------- "Be more concerned with your character than with your reputation. Your character is what you really are while your reputation is merely what others think you are." -- John Wooden --------------------------------------- Be sure to visit the Linux Tutorial: http://www.linux-tutorial.info --------------------------------------- NOTE: All messages sent to me in response to my posts to newsgroups, mailing lists or forums are subject to reposting.