Xref: utzoo comp.sys.mac.programmer:2981 comp.sys.mac:22298
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From: pengo@tmpmbx.UUCP (Hans H. Huebner)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.programmer,comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: Inside Mac
Message-ID: <1282@tmpmbx.UUCP>
Date: 30 Oct 88 15:23:16 GMT
Article-I.D.: tmpmbx.1282
References: <975@cps3xx.UUCP>
Reply-To: pengo@tmpmbx.UUCP (Hans H. Huebner)
Organization: netmbx GbR, Berlin, West Germany
Lines: 37

In article <975@cps3xx.UUCP> rang@cpswh.cps.msu.edu (Anton Rang) writes:
>  If I have to use cheap loose-leaf manuals with thin paper (as one
>major UN*X vendor provides), life's miserable (but then, Unix manuals
>are awful anyway).
I don't share this opinion.  I'd be very happy if the Macintosh Docs would
be in the standard Unix manual format.  Unix manuals are for programmers,
and they are only reference.  Once you learned how they work, they are very
useful.  In fact, I find them much easier to use than the VMS docs, since I
never need more than some seconds to find exactly the information I need.
Another good thing about the Unix manual scheme is that they're very easy
to update.
Ok, I know that this is the wrong place to start another UNIX vs. VMS war ;-).

>				Heavy loose-leaf, together with good binders
>(think D-rings...think Apple should sell binders with a nice Apple logo
>on them...optional, of course, so you could use your own binders)
>would be nice, though.
Yep.  I'd love to see the Mac docs splitted in two parts:  A section with
full-blown, easy to understand usage information for each part of the
toolbox, and a reference section, maybe similar to the Unix manuals,
splitted into sections for every toolbox manager.  As such, a newcomer
would read the introduction to the Mac first, and later on he'd only use
the reference sections for quick and easy access.  That's the way Unix
manuals work, and I don't know too many Unix programmers who have
difficulties with the manuals.

My major complaint about the Mac is the bad documentation.  A better scheme
could be helpful in getting rid of the prejudice that the Mac is hard to
program.

	-Hans

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