Its not that I am blaming the documentation, what I mean is that is
assumes too much. In my experiece the best documentation covers all
possible aspects and goes into details over everything. For example,
some one on the list pointed out that I when you execute a EHLO
command, you need to include a host name.
The documentation says -
"If you are setting up a client, and want to know which authentication
mechanisms the server supports, you can use Telnet to connect to port
25 (the SMTP port) on the server, and issue an EHLO command. The
response to this includes the list of supported mechanisms."
If instead it said -
"If you are setting up a client, and want to know which authentication
mechanisms the server supports, you can use Telnet to connect to port
25 (the SMTP port) on the server, and issue an EHLO <hostname> command. The
response to this includes the list of supported mechanisms."
This would have made my life a lot easier and I would not have need to
post my last message. I know that this is a minute detail, but small
little additions would make the documenation go from very technical
and terse to more reader friendly and easier to follow. By no means
am I trying to put down the authors of exim. It was just a little
feedback. I know that writing documentaion for the most part is very
hard to write.
Thanks everyone for all of the help you have given me,
Erik
On Wed, Jul 11, 2001 at 09:02:43AM -0700, Jeff Green wrote:
>At 09:44 AM 7/11/01 , Erik Mathisen wrote:
>
>>Well, I went and read that over and over, still doesn't make any sense
>>to me. I did what is said in the beginning, telneted to port 25 and
>>issues a EHLO command and it gave me a 501 error. Then i issued the
>>exim -bP authenticator_list command and it did not return anything.
>>It seems to me that other people have to use this feature, yet, it is
>>very hard to find any documentation that makes sense. The manual
>>doesnt make any sense (to me atleast) and is very obscure.
>
>While I understand your plight (I'm there myself), blaming the documentation
>will get you nowhere here. Unfamiliarity with terminology gets in my way, but
>the more I learn the more the docs answer my questions. It takes me several
>readings to get some of the concepts down, and how to accomplish SMTP auth
>isn't one I've absorbed yet. Perhaps I'm just slow, but I'd rather believe that's
>the norm.
>
>>If I can get this working, I will write a howto for this subject, as I believe
>>it will be a great help to others.
>
>Not a bad idea. I'll be watching for it.
>
>Jeffrey B. Green Personal Computer Consultant - Las Vegas, Nevada
>http://jbgreen.com Networking Las Vegas Since 1986
>
>--
>## List details at http://www.exim.org/mailman/listinfo/exim-users Exim details at http://www.exim.org/ ##
