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From: root@ozdaltx.UUCP (root)
Newsgroups: net.unix
Subject: Observations  (was: Gripes about /bin/sh AND /bin/csh)
Message-ID: <112@ozdaltx.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 14-Jun-86 14:03:22 EDT
Article-I.D.: ozdaltx.112
Posted: Sat Jun 14 14:03:22 1986
Date-Received: Tue, 17-Jun-86 21:09:09 EDT
Lines: 41
Summary: stupid questions (and answers???)

"The only STUPID question is the one that is never asked.." - Anon.

It is sad but true that the manuals provided with this system are often
very poorly written and/or include so much techinical jorgan that
the intent of the section gets lost in the translation... (Are
you listening MicroSoft and/or Tandy ????).

As an example; the function 'expr'. Nowhere in the manual is
stated that expr has a 'index', 'length', or 'match' capibility,
NOR does it state that it is limited to positive, non-floating
point numbers. They, as a rule, seriously lack clear, concise
examples on the use of the "tool"... What good is a tool is you
don't know how to use it?!? BTW the way I found out about the
above was one day I decided to do: strings /bin/expr | more
and saw the entries and played with them until I got them to
work.

Another example is 'sort'. The information IS there, ok, BUT
if you read the paragraphs enought times, finially from within
all of the verbosity finially emerges the fact that the entire
line is "0" and that a partialy line can be represented as
"0.xx".. or what-ever. What ever happened to the K I S S rule?
(Keep It Simple Stupid!). 

I strongly suspect that many of the manual pages/sections were
written by PhD. canidates intent on impressing their peers with
their command of gobbledegook!

I've been working with this system for close to 5 years now, and
STILL find myself learning something new about it almost every
day... The truth of the matter is, I have obtained most of my
useful information from "civilian" publications rather than the
supplied manuals!

Speaking of verbosity....'nuf said.
Flames are OK... I LOVE mail!
Scotty
...ihnp4!cuae2!ltuxa!we53!sw013b!dj3b1!killer!ozdaltx!root

DISCLAIMER:
"This system is mine, so there!"