Hi there,
I said,
> >minutes later. HOWTOs are, I think, great for people who know 'what
> >they want to do' and just aren't sure they're covering everything in
> >the route there. But unless everything you're told to do in a HOWTO works
> >first time, you're stuck, in my experience. They're more for achieving
> >an end than introducing a program or explaining a concept.
>
> I don't agree.
I was sure someone would have a different view, yes :) But is the
reply concerning my experience with HOWTOs, or what I said earlier
about asking, and then asking again until you got to an answer
you understood? Or even the last part about explaining concepts?
> If you walk through a HOWTO and reach a point
> where the expected result doesn't occur, you can then go onto the
> Net in the appropiate group or mailing list and specify what you
> did and what didn't work. Generally someone will able to help you.
> The more information you can give when you ask a question, the more
> likely you are to get an answer. "I installed XYZ and it didn't work"
> is not as likely to produce useful responses as "I installed XYZ according
> to the directions in the HOWTO, and after step 5 an error message said,
> 'Can't find libABC.so in path.' What do I do now?"
That I understand. I've seen several messages where someone has copied
an error message down that I've recognised, or where they say what
they've done, and yes, they get more in the way of fast replies than
"It doesn't work" :)
But I'm not quite sure how that invalidates what I said about
HOWTOs being hard to grasp at times.
> FYI, I'm new to the list, but not new to Linux. I've
> been using it since 0.98pl6, and programming professionally on
> Unix since 1989.
_That_ might account for the different experiences, of course :)
I have been using (as in: playing nethack and reading email) it
for quite a while, and am slowly getting the hang of having my
own machine rather than playing on someone else's, but I'm
certainly no programmer. On the other hand, several people have
said that although new to Linux, they sailed through different
HOWTOs with ease.
> I work in the Research Triangle Park area of NC, USA.
My condolences on the humidity, then :) (It's the one place in the
US I've visited, and I felt like I was melting. And that was the
spring...)
Telsa
************
[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.linuxchix.org
