From: sysmark@helios.physics.utoronto.ca (Mark Bartelt)
Subject: Re: IRIX 4.0.x manuals
Reply-To: mark@cita.toronto.edu
Organization: University of Toronto Physics/Astronomy/CITA
Date: Wed, 8 Apr 1992 19:57:01 GMT

Hey, it's been nearly a month since I complained about the 4.0.1 manuals, so
I guess I'd better get off my duff.  I admit that this is one issue where it's
possible for rational people to have different but equally valid opinions.  Be
that as it may ...

[ me ]

| (1)  Unlike the nice hard-cover three-ring binders of old, which would happily
| stand up on a shelf by themselves, the new manuals are flimsy, and tend to 
| flop over as soon as a few of their neighbours are removed from the shelf.

[ Tony Facca ]

| Bookends do an amazing job of alleviating this annoying behaviour.

Perhaps, but I'd rather not be bothered shuffling bookends around every time
I pull out (or replace) a few manuals.  Furthermore, bookends do nothing to
keep the skinny manuals from sliding toward the back of the shelf, where they
hide between their more-forward fatter siblings.

[ me ]

| (2)  There's no way to update a new manual without totally replacing it.  

[ Tony Facca ]

| This could be considered an advantage.

Granted we won't have to fuss with cardboard and cellophane any longer, but
now the only options are: (1) total replacement (the expense being ultimately
borne by SGI's customers); (2) addenda/errata pages (rather inconvenient, not
to mention the likelihood of important information being overlooked by someone
who picks up the manual but isn't aware of the existence of an out-of-sequence
page); or (3) little or no hardcopy updates at all, except for major releases.
I consider all of these options inferior to the occasional boring cardboard-
and-cellophane drudge.

I held out a faint hope that, as time wore on, I'd become accustomed to the new
manual format, and dislike them less.  On the contrary, I find that I dislike
them even more than I did a month ago.  Of the 4.0.1 manuals on my shelf, most
(22, if I counted right) have the manual name on the fold-over cover opposite
the spine.  However, there are quite a few thin ones (nine, plus seven release
notes of various sorts) that don't.  So a typical (admittedly minor) annoyance
might be something on the order of ...

   OK, so-and-so wants to borrow the ANSI C Transition Guide.  <rummage,
   rummage>  Could this be it?  Uh-uh, it's the Fortran "edge" Tutorial.
   <rummage,rummage>  How about *this* one?  No, it's the IRIX 4D1-4.0
   Transition Guide.  [Oh, how silly, I should have known.  After all,
   this one has a little *yellow* stripe beside the big purple stripe,
   but of course the one I'm looking for should have a little *blue*
   stripe beside the big purple stripe.]  <rummage,rummage>  How about ...

Nonetheless, a lot of minor annoyances add up to something.  In the old days,
I could have just grabbed the binder with all the C documents, knowing that
I'd find the ANSI C Transition Guide inside (assuming that SGI had supported
ANSI C in the old days :-).

I'll admit that the content of some of the manuals has improved since 3.3.x
(while at the same time, the content of some of the others has, IMHBCO, gone
down in quality), but the packaging is a big lose.

Mark Bartelt                                                    416/978-5619
Canadian Institute for                                 mark@cita.toronto.edu
Theoretical Astrophysics                               mark@cita.utoronto.ca

"Clothes not busy being worn are busy drying."    -    Dylan, on laundry day