>Hi there,
Howdy, Telsa!
>>>But unless everything you're told to do in a HOWTO works
>>>first time, you're stuck, in my experience.
>> 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?
The reply is concerning your statement above. I do not
agree that you are "stuck", since you are well-positioned to ask
for help on the Net after the failure.
A document detailed enough to explain all the possible
failure points and how to resolve each would be large and complex
enough to intimidate many new users, thus defeating the purpose
of a HOWTO.
I agree that HOWTO's are not tutorials; they are
minimalist walkthroughs. They serve a completely different
purpose from tutorials.
>> 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.
Not at all. I wasn't disagreeing with that statement.
I was disagreeing with "you're stuck".
>> 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.
Obviously prior experience makes a difference. I'd
enjoyed using Unix since 1986 (initially at college), and always
hated MS products. Along the way I've owned two Commodore 64's,
an Amiga 1000, an Amiga 2000, and an AT&T 3B1 ("Unix PC").
I didn't buy my current PC until Linux became available. I could
see that Intel/IBM type PC hardware had won out over the others,
but I didn't give in to the dark side until a good operating
system was available for it. :-)
>> 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...)
I don't like dry climates, so I'm quite comfortable here.
--Cathy James
************
[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.linuxchix.org
