Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!lll-winken!lll-tis!ames!killer!elg
From: elg@killer.UUCP (Eric Green)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: AMIX?
Message-ID: <3991@killer.UUCP>
Date: 5 May 88 08:12:10 GMT
References: <1917@sugar.UUCP>
Organization: The Unix(R) Connection, Dallas, Texas
Lines: 37

in article <1917@sugar.UUCP>, peter@sugar.UUCP (Peter da Silva) says:
> Another point is that UNIX is well-documented. Try to figure out just what
> Execute() on mi Amiga does from the manual.

WHAT??? What have you been smoking????

I have here a complete set of Sys V.2 manuals (the 5-volume set), plus 
the old two-volume V7 manual (from ancient days).

And, I also have here, the complete 5-volume Amiga manual set, plus a 2-volume
3rd-party reference manual. And, of course, the autodocs, the equivalent of
the Unix man pages.  

As far as readability, usability, etc., go, I find them to be about the same.
Somewhat cryptic, needing a lot of work to dig out gems from, but, eventually,
you can find anything you need.  In fact, the Exec and Intuition documentation
probably is above average, compared to the "average" computer manual, in that
some attempt is made at trying to explain the basic structure of the system
(sure, they don't succeed... but at least it's not just a bunch of "man" pages
printed out and bound together, like the Unix manuals). 

The exception is, of course, the Dos documentation. Which stinks, Period.
About what you would expect. Throw it in da trash (BPTR's... BLETCH!). 

Methinks that the only reason someone might think Unix is better documented,
is if that person is a Unix guru who reads system source code with his
breakfast. That much, at least, you cannot do with AmigaDos (sigh). Source
code may be, indeed, the ultimate documentation (I know that I would never
have been able to figure out "termcap" from the documentation...). But most of
us would be happy to have decent documentation, and leave source code to the
masochists (it's HARD to decipher other people's sources, in case you haven't
noticed -- especially when it's all uncommented, like the Unix system
sources).  

--
    Eric Lee Green  elg@usl.CSNET    Snail Mail P.O. Box 92191        
    ihnp4!killer!elg                 Lafayette, LA 70509              
"Is a dream a lie that don't come true, or is it something worse?"