On Wed, 23 Jan 2008, Scott Ehrlich wrote:
I try not to wear out the list, but do what the list was created for - discussion and inquiry of UNIX and related topics.
I don't think you'll wear out the list, but I would like clearer statements about the user's goals along with the technical questions. Writing down the user's goals frequently exposes assumptions that totally alter the technical (or perhaps non-technical) solution. The purely technical question you ask the list, although you will eventually get an accurate answer, may not be the question that you need to ask in order to make the user happy. People reading the list aren't going to pick up on that without background.
I'm *not* trying to discourage you from posting, but writing up a clear statement of the user's goals is admittedly a non-trivial thing. Writing it will also prevent you from banging out a question without having thought it through completely, which will ultimately save you (and everybody who responds) the time and effort of going down a dead-end investigation.
I am also aware that many organizations contain political issues or lack of trust or economic/staffing constraints that make it impossible to do this kind of analysis. If that's the case for you, that's a different problem.
Just my $.02, Dave _______________________________________________ bblisa mailing list [email protected] http://www.bblisa.org/mailman/listinfo/bblisa
