On Thu, 2 Aug 2001, Chris Seberino wrote:
> However, even if exim was only aimed at "serious" users
> and work environments, is it really wise to enforce
> RTFM by intentionally making things difficult?
Please. The _last_ thing I would ever attempt to do would be to
"intentionally make things difficult". The technical issues can be
complex - we have to try to make them easier and accessible, but it
ain't easy and, from a position of knowledge, it is hard when writing
documentation to avoid leaving out the one bit of crucial information
that the newbie doesn't have. That's why you really want the newbie to
write documentation, not the expert.
I've been around in this business for over 30 years. I've seen this all
before, many times. Way back in the early 1970's a proposal to give
beginner computer users immediate access to the interactive timesharing
system, before they had learned how to use the offline batch punch-card +
lineprinter system (and thereby gained some background knowledge) was
extremely controversial. But it went ahead, and world did not end.
--
Philip Hazel University of Cambridge Computing Service,
ph10@??? Cambridge, England. Phone: +44 1223 334714.
