Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!usc!apple!mattd
From: mattd@Apple.COM (Matt Deatherage)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple
Subject: Re: new standard file questions
Message-ID: <36949@apple.Apple.COM>
Date: 2 Dec 89 17:29:39 GMT
References: <14405@boulder.Colorado.EDU> <10717@claris.com>
Organization: Apple Computer Inc, Cupertino, CA
Lines: 61

In article <10717@claris.com> jazzman@claris.com (Sydney R. Polk) writes:
>From article <14405@boulder.Colorado.EDU>, by hartkopf@tramp.Colorado.EDU (Jeff Hartkopf):
>> Thank you.  Yes, I do read the toolbox manuals (the first two, that I have)
>> very closely before posting questions to the net.  However, unfortunately,
>> I am not able to afford both the Toolbox Reference Volume 3 beta draft and
>> the final draft when it comes out, so I'm waiting for the final draft.
>> Therefore, since I had no other way of finding out about the *new* Standard
>> File calls, that are explained only (I assume) in the 3rd volume, I posted
>> the question to the net.
>> 
>> I guess I thought that one purpose of this newsgroup was to ask technical
>> questions that one had no other way of getting answers to.
>It is.  I am sorry.  I work for a rich, fat-cat company and getting
>things is easy for me.  I should have more sympathy for those developers
>without the resources that I have available to me.
>
>However, I think both the GS/OS manuals and the Toolbox Reference 3 will
>be beta an awful long time, and it is probably not worth the wait, esp.
>since you need the material now.  There is an awful lot of information
>in these that you really need to program in System 5.0.x.  I really
>don't think that much will change with final draft.
>
>Once again, please accept my apology.  I did not realize your situation.
>
>
>-- 
>Syd Polk           | Wherever you go, there you are.

It's not often that I'm less gracious than Syd, but this could be one of those
times.

Jeff, you *do* have another way of getting answers to these questions.  You
can buy the book.  The people on this newsgroup are happy to help you with
confusing technical issues, but they're not here to retype manuals that you
have chosen not to purchase.

I know they're not cheap.  When I was in college, my budget for such things
was *very* limited.  However, I didn't lose track of what I consider the
Penultimate Rule of Beta Documentation:

"You never, never write programs that you show to anyone else unless you have
the documentation on all the calls you're using."

Guessing at data structures you feed to a new tool is just not a good idea.
Sadly, there *is* a cost associated with programming, but we try to keep it
low (TB Ref volume 3 costs $35 from APDA for over 800 pages, which is a much
better buy than most college texts I can recall).

No one has any intent of forcing you to buy documentation to program.  But
please have the decency and respect for those who use your programs not to
use parts of the system you don't have the documentation on.

-- 
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