RTFM??? Re: Karen mail
On Sun, 7 Jan 2007, Camden Hardy wrote: Sorry, that is absolutely wrong. I could show you some manuals that would tell you absolutely nothing if you didn't know it already. In fact few manuals nowadays communicate sufficiently by themselves, but require a mentor, or tech support, or a workshop, or a base of prior knowledge."RTFM". And, I'll add that I come from a manual writing family. My brother wrote the manuals that taught raw navy recruits how to fire the (Thor and Atlas, as I recall) missiles post WW2... But that was the good old days... Now name ONE manual from today that you think an average bright person could learn a program from without snafus... I haven't seen one in 10 years. No, make that 20 years. In the "olden days" I learned to program my data base, operate Pagemaker, Word & Mac entirely from the manuals. I don't believe I'm seriously dumber now than then, in fact I have more knowledge & experience to work from... But what most of the manuals I've gotten lately are really good for is depleting the body of its adrenaline supply. Hehe? I visualize a manual "bake off," handing an unfamiliar program, something new, to a few folks *without* their support system. Most screwups of course don't have such public repercussions... This one was like something out of a Buster Keaton or Inspector Clouseau movie. So be glad you've made your mistakes in private & been saved from such ignominy... but don't say RTFM so smugly. The problem is at least as likely to be the FM itself.Amen to that! hehe... love & kisses, Judy Camden Hardy camden[at]hardyphotography[dot]net http://www.hardyphotography.net
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