On Sun, 2007-09-02 at 10:31 -0700, Les wrote: > On Sun, 2007-09-02 at 18:11 +0100, Ian Malone wrote: > > Les Mikesell wrote: > > > Just imagine how hard that will be > > > now for the new user looking for the one simple command line it takes to > > > use dd. > > > > Of course any sane human being would read the man page, but > > apparently it's more fun just to guess what will happen. > > > Man pages are not useful to someone without considerable background. As > you gain experience (and the knowledge that others are willing to share > with you), they become more helpful. Most man pages are only basically > useful, which is what spurred the development of Info as I understand > it, and of course I often see even the most knowledgeable of our > compatriots here refer to wiki pages, wiki books, Fedora documentation, > and other sources, and some of these sources conflict, but if you have > some other knowledge and experience, you can sort the wheat from the > chaff (most of the time anyway), and get what you need. For someone > like Karl, who is using the machine for a task, and only learning what > he needs to get by, these sources are often less than useful. Trust me, > I remember learning on my own decades ago. That is why I try to be > clear, concise and helpful. > > If you have "the gift" of technology comprehension, you are lucky. > Most folks are not. > > I hope you can find the help you need in those resources, but I also > hope that I and others on this list will be helpful to you as well. ---- 1 - one can curse the darkness or light a candle. If anyone feels the man pages are inadequate, you can help to make them more accessible. Linux software and documentation is a participatory project. 2 - the man pages exist for the purpose of providing on-line help. Most of them are pretty good. If they are too technical, generally googling for further expansion of the themes presented generally works pretty well. So does asking this list. 3 - there was a time when it was expected that you read the man pages or googled for answers prior to asking the list - it was general courtesy/respect for the list that you made some effort to understand/solve your issues first. Sadlly, this seems to be slipping away from us. 4 - there was a time when it was considered reasonable to slap around someone who failed to demonstrate an expenditure of time and effort to resolve their issues - I'll leave this as an exercise to the list readers to answer this on their own. 5 - often people don't know or forget that it is simple enough to open Konqueror and read man/info pages in GUI... click in address line and type 'man:dd' or 'info:dd' 6 - this is not directed at anyone specifically but if the shoe fits...wear it. Craig
