From: mccall@mksol.dseg.ti.com (fred j mccall 575-3539)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: Giles' Manual Mania (Was
Date: 25 Aug 92 15:37:33 GMT
Article-I.D.: mksol.1992Aug25.153733.6079
Organization: Texas Instruments Inc

In <396.174.uupcb@ssr.com> dick.zeitlin%acc1bbs@ssr.com (Dick Zeitlin)  writes:

>FJM5> .>When people ask me questions, I answer them. <- Period.

>FJM5> .Then you do them a gross disservice, since you provide them with no
>    > .ability to find other things and no understanding of how they could
>    > .have found that answer.

>Not true.  It depends on the way one answers a question.  There's a
>truism that says "In order to ask a question, you have to know 90% of
>the answer."  Think about it...

>Also consider the following two responses:
>        "What's the REAL question?"
>        "What have you tried?" or "What have you considered?"

I'm a bit confused here.  I differ with Jim in my suggestion that the
thing to do is (rather than simply answer the question -- period)
provide them with HOW to answer the question.  Lead them to the answer
and let them see how you found it.  This is practically the same thing
as what you suggested in your other note, and yet here you seem to
disagree with me.

>FJM5> .If it was easy, they wouldn't pay us.  :-)

>Non sequitor.

Also fact.

>FJM5> .>I don't recommend that
>    > .>*anyone* read the manuals except as a last resort (that is, when no one
>    > .>is available to *ask*).

>FJM5> .Sounds like the old 'knowledge is power' game to me.

>Perhaps.  But not necessarily.  If the Unix manuals are so usable and
>informative howcum B.Dalton's got shelves full of books on Unix?

B. Dalton's also has shelves full of books on Microsoft Windows, which
is so simple to use that a trained chimp could probably manage it.
You're judging ease of use by the number of books B. Dalton's has on
the shelves?

>FJM5> .>In fact, if you tell the user which manual is
>    > .>appropriate, they usually *will* try to read it - and the resulting
>    > .>questions (to explain the manual) will usually take longer than if
>    > .>you just explained the tool to them to begin with.

>FJM5> .Then you must have some real rocks around where you work.  We
>    > .generally require our engineers to know how to read before we turn
>    > .them loose on a computer.

>Your organisation must be populated with rocket scientists.  Or maybe
>they just don't ask you, knowing what sort of non-answer to expect.  The

You mean the kind of non-answer where I drag out the manual, show them
how to use it, and lead them to their answer so that they aren't
helpless in future?  You mean, in fact, the very kind of 'non-answer'
that you suggested should be given elsewhere, except my way is
somewhat more helpful since I don't just tell them to "check out the
frob data structure" but show them where to find it?

>UNIX manuals are REFERENCE manuals.  To look things up that you _mostly_
>know, to fill in the gaps.  Even with the KWIC index, if you don't know
>that it exists, and what its name is, you're going to have a tough time
>finding it!!

Sorry, but only SOME of the UNIX manuals are Reference manuals.  Check
out the set yourself.


-- 
"Insisting on perfect safety is for people who don't have the balls to live
 in the real world."   -- Mary Shafer, NASA Ames Dryden
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Fred.McCall@dseg.ti.com - I don't speak for others and they don't speak for me.