Sender: crough45 AT amc DOT de
Message-Id: <97Aug12.193059gmt+0100.17068@internet01.amc.de>
Date: Tue, 12 Aug 1997 18:32:55 +0100
From: Chris Croughton <crough45 AT amc DOT de>
Mime-Version: 1.0
To: lovecraft AT aol DOT com
Cc: djgpp AT delorie DOT com
Subject: Re: The DJGPP Oracle
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Lovecraft wrote:

>>> What's wrong with grep? Or the search in the Info reader?
>>
>>I don't know what's wrong with these.  I always find in the FAQ
>>everything I need.  
>
>Well aren't you just fabulous. I am not going to drop posting that if you
>only have a complaint about a question instead of an answer, just don;t
>post.

You're the one who's complaining, sonny.  I haven't seen you come up
with any wonderful answers.

> Move on. Answer people who you deem worthy of your gigantic
>intellect. Some of us are very slow (read: have busy lives and families
>and jobs)

Most of us, including those who spend most of their time on here
answering stupid questions, have jobs, families and "real lives".
They take time out of those activities to do things like writing
the FAQ, maintaining the software, and answering questions which
take far longer to answer than if the morons had looked in the 
documentation in the first place.  "What files do I need?"  Read
the file called README.1ST.  "How do I install it?"  Read the FAQ.
"How do I write a C program?"  Get a C book.  If any of those were
to be answered in full it would take as much time as writing them
in the documentation the first time, and drive the rest of us off
the list.

> If we're lucky we might have an hour a day to get e-mail,
>program, and peruse a faq that is laid out like spaghetti code.

If it's so bad, you write one.  No-one's stopping you.  If you
want something for nothing and can't be bothered to even give a
coherent criticism of exactly what's wrong with it ("laid out 
like spaghetti code" means nothing, how would you want it laid
out means more - any 'flat' documentation file will have to have
indices, because it can't contain hyperlinks) then you can just
put up with it.  Or you can pay me (at DM100 per hour) to write
the documentation.  Or you can buy one of the commercial compilers,
and look at their crap documentation instead.

Eli has said many times that if people come up with real criticism
of the FAQ, not just "it's crap" which is no use at all, then he'll
try to correct it.  Personally, if I'd had as much schtick as he's
had over it then I'd withdraw it totally and let the bastards suffer,
but evidently he's more forgiving than I am.

> Nick, wishing for the return of neighbors helping neighbors and an
> end to the conservative agenda.

I don't know what a "conservative agenda" is supposed to be.  In
this group neighbours do help neighbours, even those who insult 
them, which isn't the case in most of the Real World.  But time,
as you yourself pointed out, is limited...

Chris