I think too often reading documentation, even excellent sources like
Exims, is like reading the text books I read at University. Too often if
you know and understand exactly what it is you are reading, it's easy to
find things. When you are confused, or don't have a significant magnitude
of understanding of Unix, TCP/IP, and SMTP, you can't find exactly what it
is you might need for your particular problem. I don't have a com-sci
degree, I don't program, I barely script. I understand a fair bit about
computer hardware, a whole bunch of OS's, and lots of applications. I run
Exim on about 5 different mail servers, I setup lots of other applications
on those machines (Apache with virtual domains, with PHP and perl, webmail
systems, ftp, mail with virtual domains, etc) but I don't know all of
Exim's functionality, and when I read manuals, documentation, and mailing
lists, sometimes I either don't understand clearly enough, or I want to
ask a few questions (and some might be basic, to some people) to help me
along my path of deductive reasoning. I don't want to be totally hand held,
but sometimes I might need that. There are sometimes I have said to
software vendors who told me you can't run our software in that
environment, and I've done it.
So being able to ask simple questions that might be beneath someone,
or they think they should be able to figure it out themselves by reading
the docs is a good thing. I have been reading the SGI newsgroups for 5
years, and I notice there are about 3 people that can answer pretty much
ANY question regarding SGI's, but I still see thousands of repetitive
questions, and rarely do I see someone complaining. The ones who answer
the tough questions lurk, waiting for the tough questions to come by.
And sometimes I can read a manual and get more confused than I started
off, and then get very frustrated and the I maybe can't see the forest
through the trees, and I need someone with a chainsaw to cut down those
little bushes in front of my face.
anyways, today is a holiday here, and I still haven't eaten or gotten
dressed.. Time to shut up.
