Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!gem.mps.ohio-state.edu!apple!oliveb!amdahl!khearn From: khearn@uts.amdahl.com (Bug Hunter) Newsgroups: comp.binaries.ibm.pc.d Subject: Re: READ.ME: A modest proposal Message-ID: Date: 13 Oct 89 22:09:26 GMT References: <30359@pbhya.PacBell.COM> Reply-To: khearn@amdahl.uts.amdahl.com (Keith Hearn) Organization: Amdahl Corporation, Sunnyvale CA Lines: 39 In article <30359@pbhya.PacBell.COM> whh@PacBell.COM (Wilson Heydt) writes: >The inclusion of READ.ME files--while useful--is a holdover from the >days of most machines having only 1 or 2 diskette drives. While the >file still serves a useful purpose for general recipients, the common >name (and it's common variants) create a name collision problem on >a lot of machines thses days. Not if you create subdirectories for different pacakages. I've seen systems where this would be a problem, the kind that it takes 5 minutes to do a DIR on the root directory, but if you keep a decent directory structure (one package per directory) you shouldn't have this problem. >I would like to propose that the READ.ME file, as it is now used >be called "name.RME" and that if a file is desired called "READ.ME", >that it contain only directions to read the ".RME" file. In this way >each software package can have initial data in an easily found and >consistent place, and all such files can be retained with minimal risk >of name collisions. > >Further, if he is amenable, I think it would be good if our illustriuous >moderator could be persuaded to implement this as a general policy on >comp.binaries.ibm.pc. He could write a suitable (and short) READ.ME >file pointing novice users to the .RME file. IMHO, I'd rather not have two readme files, one with the info, and one just being a pointer to the info. Things get cluttered too fast as is. Name.RME, doesn't tell a novice that its a file that should be read, so I'd rather just keep READ.ME, and keep everything in separate directories. Keith Hearn -- Keith Hearn \ Lots of impossible things happen khearn@amdahl.com \ When you travel through time. Amdahl Corporation \ Dr. Who (The War Games) (408) 737-5691 \