Re: the ******* manuals

My sympathies are with you Judy, but at the same time I have to make
a few comments.

"Read the ******* manual" had it's origins as a reply to individuals
asking questions that were clearly answered in the manual. The irony
is that as software got bigger the manual also got bigger. And at a
certain point people looked at the size of the manual - admittedly
usually poorly indexed - and just couldn't be bothered to try to find
the relevant section. Hence their questions and RTFM.

Your particular interpretation "the ******* manual" is true of most
books that try to teach a subject, be they manuals or text-books. The
author must consciously decide what to include and exclude so as to
best meet the needs of the intended audience. Often they also
unconsciously exclude material, although that is often basics that
they take so much for granted that they cannot imagine that the
reader does not know the particular item.

What would help in this case would be a better definition of the
audience and subject material covered in the manual that is included
in the preface of the manual.

On 15-Mar-06, at 1:35 PM, Judy Seigel wrote:

> On Tue, 14 Mar 2006, Eric Neilsen wrote:
>> Margery, There is a web site that will decode all the symbols of the
>> internet. I don't recall the address, but I'd read that one to
>> say, "Read
>> the F____ Manual". As in a distain for many manuals lack of
>> clarity, not
>> that Dan's is.
>
> Eric, if anything you understate the case. (Not about Dan's, but
> manuals in general.) The problem is that the person writing the
> manual has the info in his/her head and doesn't realize it isn't on
> the page. I have $150 worth of Photoshop manuals,for instance, a
> couple of them recommended by this list -- they are ABOMINABLE.
> They boast about how clever they are, but too often do NOT tell you
> how to actually do something.
>
> The most recent -- and last, final, THE END ! case -- was trying to
> change a color in Photoshop, and finding it a bit tricky, resorted
> to the Blatner/Fraser book. The miserable stinking overblown
> overpriced SOBs (and that's praise) spent I don't know how many
> paragraphs showing off their knowledge of different effects of
> color, but nothing about how to actually DO "change color" or not
> under that topic. (Like Victorian "sex education" about the
> beauties of conjugal love without a hint of how it's done.)
> "Katrin," recommended by this list (I hesitate to point out) I
> found even worse -- that is, she said less about fewer things. I
> can however credit her with recommending the magnetic lasso tool,
> which I'd never tried. Thus I found, for some conditions it's
> great. (So I guess it was worth the $49 the book cost -- but the
> hours to get that far reading it?)
>
> The latest experience, and why I rant today, was yesterday, with
> the notorious Canon PS 5. (MY NEXT camera I'm going to choose, not
> by features, they aren't that different anymore I think -- but by
> the manual.) I got a red icon in upper left corner of monitor...
> was it low light, hand shake, or battery out symbol? (It's a while
> since I've seen that battery-out & didn't remember -- my memory is
> also on low.) I couldn't look at it closely because -- I admit I
> need new glasses after 15 years, but mostly because I was balanced
> on a ladder and didn't want to tempt fate.
>
> I figured the so-called "Short Course" dedicated to this camera by
> Dennis P. Curtin (also recommended here) would tell me. I figured
> wrong. And I definitely DISrecommend that book... there is for one
> thing no index, or rather, worse perhaps, something he CALLS an
> "Index to Quick steps" that is not however arranged in alphabetical
> order, but in page order. IMO, someone who doesn't know the
> difference between an index and a table of contents is not a good
> guide to anything.
>
> What the book probably does adequately is explain some basic
> concepts of photography to newbies, but to a photographer trying to
> deal with the Canon so called "manual" (which did not reveal the
> info I sought, at least not under "battery"), even worse. Aside
> from a lucid explanation of OTHER light signals on the Canon, I've
> never found anything useful in the Curtin -- tho that, mercifully,
> was only $24.
>
> And speaking of INDEXES, manuals for upgrades may not even have
> menu items listed. That's probably because they're sticking odd
> stuff into an existing text -- tho they charge enough for the
> upgrades for a decent manual (IMO). Another example, in the Blatner
> manual, I came across a reference to "High Pass." Said it was a
> filter, but not where to find it (much less how it operated). Not
> under "filter" in the index. So I went one by one through the
> filter menu & finally found it in the LAST filter folder.
> Category? "Other"!
>
> In other words, there probably is some useful information in some
> F-----g Manuals, but you can't blame folks for doubting it.
>
> Judy

------------
Bill Laidley

"...We have no idea, now, of who or what the inhabitants of our
future might be. In that sense, we have no future. Not in the sense
that our grandparents had a future, or thought they did. Fully
imagined cultural futures were the luxury of another day, one in
which 'now' was of some greater duration. For us, of course, things
can change so abruptly, so violently, so profoundly, that futures
like grandparents' have insufficent 'now' to stand on. We have no
future because our present is too volatile. ...We have only risk
management. The spinning of the given moment's scenarios. Pattern
recognition."

 From "Pattern Recognition" by William Gibson
Received on Wed Mar 15 16:08:41 2006