Date: Thu, 8 Jul 1999 11:35:23 -0700 (PDT) From: Doug <Doug@gorean.org> To: Alex Zepeda <garbanzo@hooked.net> Cc: "Brian F. Feldman" <green@FreeBSD.ORG>, Chris Costello <chris@calldei.com>, hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: 'rtfm' script Message-ID: <Pine.BSF.4.05.9907081128530.26949-100000@dt054n86.san.rr.com> In-Reply-To: <Pine.BSF.4.05.9907061259450.254-100000@zippy.dyn.ml.org>
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On Tue, 6 Jul 1999, Alex Zepeda wrote:
> On Tue, 6 Jul 1999, Brian F. Feldman wrote:
>
> > RTFM isn't a newby-apparent term. Name it help(1).
>
> Sure it is. Some hapless newbie wanders into #FreeBDS on efnet, and asks
> an already answered question. Aside from a kick, and a possible ban,
> they're likely to be met with a chorus of "rtfm", which in all likelyhood
> would prompt the inquisitive newbie to try and run rtfm.
So the whole script is the punch line to a bad joke? I'm all for
improving user documentation, but I keep getting mixed answers as to what
this script is for. One answer is that it's so people will have something
to do when they are so new and foolish as to believe that 'rtfm' is a
command, the other answer is that this script/program/whatever is designed
to do a bunch of help file searching that the user could (and probably
should be) do themselves.
I'd like to make a suggestion which might help both goals, and
save some time. Instead of making a program to do the searching for the
user, why not write a man page for 'rtfm' that describes the many
resources available and how to use them? Then the actual rtfm command
could be a short program that just calls up the man page. It's not as
glamorous, but IMO it will be more useful.
Doug
--
On account of being a democracy and run by the people, we are the only
nation in the world that has to keep a government four years, no matter
what it does.
-- Will Rogers
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