UNIX Documentation (was: '386 Unix Wars)

[Rahul Dhesi]

>>What really baffles me is that people who seem to be reasonably well
>>educated have such poor research skills.  This is a very bad trend...

By itself, this is an appropriate comment.  But it completely
inappropriate as a response to criticism of AT&T's poor documentation.

Good research skills let a person survive better in a world of
inadequate documentation.  They do not justify the existence of such
bad documentation.  Asking the reader to read all the manuals is a
silly resonse to a desire to see better indexes available.  It would be
like asking somebody to read more books if he complained about not
being able to find a decent dictionary.

In fact it is experienced users of UNIX, and those more knowledgeable
in the English language, who are *more* likely to feel the need for
better indexes and more comprehensive dictionaries.  You will not
usually find an illiterate person pining for an unabridged dictionary,
and you will seldom find a person interested in only word processing
wishing that the the UNIX commands, library functions, system calls,
and file formats were better indexed.
--
History never         |   Rahul Dhesi <dhesi%cirrusl at oliveb.ATC.olivetti.com>
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