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From: ewhac@well.UUCP (Leo 'Bols Ewhac' Schwab)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Revised RKM Manuals
Keywords: flame
Message-ID: <7471@well.UUCP>
Date: 26 Oct 88 08:28:37 GMT
Article-I.D.: well.7471
References: <oXIuwqy00VsfM0jV4J@andrew.cmu.edu> <2694@ingr.UUCP> <18@ssibbs.UUCP> <7437@well.UUCP> <658@ardent.UUCP>
Reply-To: ewhac@well.UUCP (Leo 'Bols Ewhac' Schwab)
Organization: The Comic Relief Machine
Lines: 61
Quote: Why ask, "What if...?" when you can ask, "Who cares?"

In article <658@ardent.UUCP> rap@ardent.UUCP (Rob Peck) writes:
>In article <7437@well.UUCP>, ewhac@well.UUCP (Leo 'Bols Ewhac' Schwab) writes:
>> 	The primary reason for this irrational behavior is that A-W
>> hopelessly screwed up the layout of the AutoDocs.  [ ... ]
>
>I don't know whether they'd reorganize it "back" to the way it was based on
>your (and my) complaints, but as I remember, I caught SO much flack from
>unix-oids once the white books were issued that I was TOLD to alphabetize
>everything because once someone heard the name of a function, they insisted
>that they be able to go directly alphabetically to the function and not have
>to stop and figure out what KIND of function it was, going to the appropriate
>Library docs to find it listed there.

	This argument on the part of the UNIX-oids is, of course, complete
hogwash.

	Look at a UNIX Programmer's Manual.  The shell commands are in a
seperate section from the system administration commands, which are in a
seperate section from the games, which are in a seperate section from the
system calls, which are in a separate section from the stdio library calls,
which are in seperate section from the termcap library calls, which are in a
seperate section...

	This argument was doubtless levelled many years ago when even UNIX
was young.  This is why, near the front of all the UPM's I've seen, is a
little invention to address that problem: The permuted index.  You look up
any significant keyword you can think of in the permuted index, and it'll
direct you to the relevant chapter and page.

	Try alphabetizing all the system and library calls under UNIX into
one big list, and see if you prefer that.  I sure wouldn't.

	(No, I'm not attacking Bob; I'm attacking the twits who made this
lame argument stick.)

>The other thing is that the parallelism between the functions grouped as
>they originally were related to the include files that defined the variables
>and structures that the functions used.  That made it easier for ME to 
>learn about the system in the first place.
>
	Me, too.  One of the first things I did after getting the Amiga was
to print out all the include files and read them.  Most educational.

>The reorg though mayhaps be beyond [Nancy Raines'] control.
>The (shall be nameless because I don't remember who said it) folks who
>demanded the full alpha reorg may still control that layout. (sigh)
>
	We can always vote with our wallets.  I suspect a major portion of
sales will be to people who want hardcopies of the new AutoDocs and include
files.  If A-W barfs it up again, then we can simply agree not to buy the
new manuals.  The AutoDocs and include files are machine-readable anyway,
and can be purchased directly from Commodore for $20.  Then some clever
person posts a program that will directly take these files and format them
to come out pretty on a laser printer, and individuals can make their own
hardcopy from the machine-readable version they bought.

_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_
Leo L. Schwab -- The Guy in The Cape	INET: well!ewhac@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU
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