Re: man/info debate

[Patrick Callahan <pac1@tiac.net>]

David Benfell wrote:

>
> >
> If I may add a concept to what you state below, in general, available
> documentation needs to do a much better job of covering the
> contingencies where something goes wrong.  Look at the failure points
> and stop assuming that they'll be obvious to anyone who follows this
> path.
>

Thanks  That's an important thing to look at.  Your comment of course has prompted
a small cascade of  additional  questions:

What happens when the information point or its context in related information is
not understood?
What happens when the usage context is not understood and the information is
applied in an inappropriate context?
What errors do users of the information make when trying to appropriately apply
the information in an appropriate context?
What systemic failures can be uncovered by attempting to apply the information
either correctly or incorrectly?  What are the consequences?

(A reminder for those who may not have followed this thead.  The questions I'm
posing are intentionally very abstract.  Most of them you've probably seen
before.  I don't know if anything will come of collecting them or not... yet...
If all else fails, we can send the list to Letterman as the top things not to ask
when your trying to write a computer manual for Linux.  ;-)

-Pat


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