Xref: utzoo comp.sys.mac.programmer:2994 comp.sys.mac:22327
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From: jrk@s1.sys.uea.ac.uk (Richard Kennaway CMP RA)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.programmer,comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: Inside Mac
Message-ID: <177@s1.sys.uea.ac.uk>
Date: 1 Nov 88 10:41:06 GMT
References: <1282@tmpmbx.UUCP>
Organization: UEA, Norwich, UK
Lines: 44

For ease of updating, nothing beats loose leaf.  For ease of handling and
robustness, nothing beats a properly bound book.  Trouble is, what we have
at present is bound books plus a pile of scattered TNs and no easy way
of finding where the latest version of some piece of info is.

Now, I dont want to start a religious war, but...

In article <1282@tmpmbx.UUCP>, pengo@tmpmbx.UUCP (Hans H. Huebner) writes:
> I'd be very happy if the Macintosh Docs would be in the standard Unix
> manual format. ... I don't know too many Unix programmers who have
> difficulties with the manuals.

By definition, a Unix programmer is someone who has learnt where to find
things in the Unix manuals :-)

> Once you learned how they work, they are very useful.

I couldnt have expressed it better :-)

The best feature of IM is the index.  From day one of programming the
Mac, I have rarely had any difficulty in locating information in IM
(when it is there :-).  This is not true of TNs.  I would like to see a
single joint index to all the volumes of IM and all the TNs, in the
same level of detail as the current IM indexes, a new version of the
whole index going out with each distribution of TNs.  TN0 just isnt
good enough.

On the whole, I would prefer bound volumes + index as above, but I can
see the strong arguments for loose-leaf (I'd still want that index,
though).  If Apple goes for loose-leaf, *please* attend to the physical
quality of the binders.  There is nothing more frustrating than
handling binders with (a) too much paper stuffed into too small rings
(b) punched holes too small to let the pages turn freely (c) holes too
close to the edge, so the pages get torn out (d) covers that stick to
the outside sheets and tear them out.

And one small point that has nothing to do with bound vs. loose leaf:
please use Times instead of Helvetica for TNs.  Easier to read and you
get more on a page.  (No, I dont know about typesetting, I just know
what I like.)
-- 
Richard Kennaway
School of Information Systems, University of East Anglia, Norwich, U.K.
uucp:	...mcvax!ukc!uea-sys!jrk	Janet:	kennaway@uk.ac.uea.sys