Mail Archives: cygwin/2004/06/03/18:10:09
Interesting reference (bash scripting guide). I want to take more time
to read it.
I found it took me a while (20 some-odd years ago) to completely
understand the man structure and format. I found some AT&T documents on
man and, after much reading, came to understand the sections, the
subsections and the overall concept of man pages. Now it's easy for me,
and I can usually find exactly what I need in a man page quickly.
Unfortunately, Linux seems to be leaning toward keeping things in info
format. More up-to-date documentation can be found there, so I've
learned how to use Emacs to peruse info manuals.
Because of the efforts I went through to learn how to read documentation
in Unix, I understand a newbie struggling with it.
Then there's the question of how up-to-date documents are. When an
application was enhanced, were the man pages updated? Are there
features that aren't documented that I want to use?
I try to be understanding with questions. If they're totally ignorant
and lazy, I might kindly tell them where to look, but if it appears like
they've made a little effort, I'll try and answer them.
Chris Carlson
iStor Networks, Inc.
-----Original Message-----
From: cygwin-owner AT cygwin DOT com [mailto:cygwin-owner AT cygwin DOT com] On Behalf
Of Hannu E K Nevalainen
Sent: Thursday, June 03, 2004 1:00 PM
To: cygwin AT cygwin DOT com
Subject: RE: PATH and HOME in cygwin
> From: Chris Carlson
> Sent: Thursday, June 03, 2004 6:29 PM
<SNIP>
> I'm just suggesting that we show a little patience to people who may
not
> be as well versed in Unix as you are. It is the impatient,
> condescending tone that gives new Linux users a bad taste for the OS.
I
> want Linux to crush M$ (at least to the point that they are on equal
> footing in the market). Chasing off new users is not going to
encourage
> that.
Ahh... I'm glad to hear that there are more people like me reading this
list.
I consider myself beeing well versed in how computers work in general
terms,
I learn fast - as I've been at it for years - still I have problems
grasping
some of the stuff; though I most of the time know how things usually are
set
up.
I find the man pages very terse, not useful until you know about it
already. Other resources often feels either disorganized, using a
complex
language or a complex - hard to "google" - setup or organization. And if
nothing else of the above "fits"; the text describes in terms of assumed
prior knowledge - where often _one single additional sentence_ picks up
the
person being less knowledgable to join the ride.
The last thing shouldn't be so very hard to change - thus enabling more
people to join the gang: Make open/free software be truly free and open!
And last:
A feature that hasn't been documented (well) could just as well be
unimplemented - when it comes to how usable it is.
Source is a language that slants in different ways depending on the
writers
knowledge, coding and commenting style - to begin with.
This never has the potential of feeding "any user" with apropriate
input.
This one link might be a golden-oldie:
$ cat abs-guide.url
[InternetShortcut]
URL=http://www.cs.unibo.it/~montreso/doc/bash/abs-guide.pdf
... I've yet to check it out thoroughly. Seems a bit aged.
/Hannu E K Nevalainen, B.Sc. EE - 59+16.37'N, 17+12.60'E
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