Re: renaming Help

[Chuck Martin <techwriter -at- VNET -dot- IBM -dot- COM>]

I might want to question the viability of the Unix "man" command. I was
forced to use Unix systems on campus, and the times when I needed help
and used that were generally unsuccessful: even when the command worked
to give me some information (not a given), the information was frequently
_un_helpful.

Steve, you say that you looked at Windows Help and found it lacking.
You probably looked not at "Windows Help," but a specific Help file
in Windows, a file that was probably poorly developed. With a well-written
Help file, you would not encounter the problems you did.

And no, I would not change the name. "Help" is short, direct, and most
importantly, descriptive. Calling it vague shows that it can be open to
interpretation--but tha's true for a lot of things. Trying to narrow it
down by coming up with overly specific, multi-syllabic terminology I'd
wager would just confuse users. "Help" is easy to understand, by users
from 6 to 60, by programmers, company presidents, dishwashers, factory
workers, and more. This is one thing that ain't broke, so don't "fix" it!

Chuck Martin
Information Developer, IBM
techwriter -at- vnet -dot- ibm -dot- com
"The more complex the mind, the greater the need for the simplicity of play."
                                   - Star Trek, "Shore Leave"