Re: [exim] Referring people to the docs vs. an example

yes, somethings I feel this exim mail list is also like one step more
for going to read manual

On 7/17/07, Marc Perkel <marc@???> wrote:
>
>
> Peter Bowyer wrote:
> > On 17/07/07, Marc Perkel <marc@???> wrote:
> >
> >
> >
> >> Ir's easier to just answer the question than just point someone to the docs.
> >>
> >
> > Referring to the docs is *always* an acceptable answer, when done in a
> > helpful way (as it was here).
> >
> > A lazy way to answer the question would be to just quote a sample line
> > of config. A more helpful way is to point the OP to the right place in
> > the docs where he can read about what's being proposed, along with all
> > the other useful stuff to be found there. Then he might be able to
> > answer his next question himself.
> >
> > This only applies to people prepared to read for themselves, of
> > course. The rest will keep coming back here with questions that could
> > be answered with a trivial search of the documentation.
> >
> > Peter
> >
> >
>
> Although pointing t the docs is helpful and Exim docs are better than
> most open source projects, the Exim scripting is not very intuitive and
> has a lot of quirks and is light on examples. So even if you go to the
> docs for someone who is new to Exim they will still spend an hour trying
> to do something simple.
>
> In this example, the user asked about how to do something based on load
> levels. Yes, Exim has a $load_average command but you also have to be
> aware that you have to use 1000x for your comparison because Exim
> doesn't take floating point numbers, (40.0 would be more intuitive that
> 40000). And you have to be able to build an Exim conditional, which is
> not intuitive at all.
>
> defer condition = ${if > {$load_average}{40000}{true}{false}}
>
> No other language that I know of builds conditionals that look like
> this. So if you are a new user then you also have to research how to
> build a conditional comparison. And you also have to understand the
> whole ACL thing. But if you just actually answer the question then the
> person can paste the code into the ACL without having to spend hours
> looking up several things that some of us just know. Most people don't
> dedicate their lives to Exim.
>
> On that subject, Exim syntax is it's weakest feature. It is only good if
> you compare it to Sendmail which looks like modem noise. It would be a
> far mor productive language if it were more pascal like:
>
> if $load_average > 40 then defer
>
> So - pointing to the docs might be barely good enough but pasting a bit
> of code example is generally better.
>
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