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Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!ima!johnl
From: johnl@ima.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc,comp.sys.misc,comp.lang.c,comp.lang.pascal
Subject: Re: Aggravating manuals
Message-ID: <728@ima.ISC.COM>
Date: Tue, 29-Sep-87 20:57:24 EDT
Article-I.D.: ima.728
Posted: Tue Sep 29 20:57:24 1987
Date-Received: Fri, 2-Oct-87 00:58:56 EDT
References: <1651@killer.UUCP> <599@uthub.toronto.edu>
Reply-To: johnl@ima.UUCP (John R. Levine)
Organization: Not enough to make any difference
Lines: 18
Keywords: demand improvements!
Xref: utgpu comp.sys.ibm.pc:7345 comp.sys.misc:801 comp.lang.c:4419 comp.lang.pascal:303
Summary: perfect binding is a lot cheaper

In article <599@uthub.toronto.edu> stevec@uthub.UUCP (Stephen Curran) writes:
>I suspect the reason for using softbound books rather then binders is
>to make photocopying a pain on cheap software.  I bought TC for $75 ...

The most likely reason is the lower cost of perfect binding. You'd be
surprised how much difference it makes. The original version of Javelin had
nice ring-bound binders, the second version had perfect bound. The price to
manufacture a copy of the program dropped from $30 to $20, which is a lot when
the whole program sells for under $100. I like ring bound manuals as much as
the next guy, but I'd rather have cheaper software.

Besides, judging from a lot of the support calls, nobody ever reads the
manual anyway.  ( :-), sort of.)
-- 
John R. Levine, IECC, PO Box 349, Cambridge MA 02238-0349, +1 617 492 3869
{ ihnp4 | decvax | cbosgd | harvard | yale }!ima!johnl, Levine@YALE.something
The Iran-Contra affair:  None of this would have happened if Ronald Reagan
were still alive.