Jack Woehr wrote: >The Unix manuals are fabulous. They're not corporate expiatiation of >contractual responsibility. They're the heart of the developer being poured >out in front of you.
I'm not sure "fabulous" would be my description -- "barely usable" is more like it in far too many cases. The quality varies wildly, and is very often completely lacking in usable examples. It was over three decades ago that my father said "My kingdom for an example!" when trying to use a UNIX man page, and AFAICT, the situation hasn't changed much. They may represent the heart of the developer, but (s)he is too often the wrong person to be documenting the beast -- (s)he *knows* it inside and out, makes too many assumptions, and may or may not be a capable writer. There's a reason that technical writers exist, and it isn't because developers are lazy... -- zMan -- "I've got a mainframe and I'm not afraid to use it"
