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Subject:Re: One publication or two? From:Matt Ion <mion -at- NEXTLEVEL -dot- COM> Date:Wed, 27 Sep 1995 19:56:30 PDT
On Tue, 26 Sep 1995 09:35:25 -0400 you wrote:
>>about 50% of those by reading the "Getting started" section. Warp's manual,
>>covering installation, basic use, and most common problems, is far less than
>>200 pages in size (I don't have mine with me or I could tell you exactly how
>>thick it ISN'T.
>I have mine, buried here under all the Windows 95 stuff... let's see... 378
>pages all up! (Hell, that surprised me too; I could have sworn it was
>'under 200 pages'.)
No kidding! It sure SEEMS like a thin book.
>Of course, I take your point, the OS/2 Manual is well done.
Indeed, which kind of gives a buffer to the "200 page" rule :) Heck, even I
learned a thing or two from it.
>But I am afraid the sins of our forefathers are being visited upon us: we
>have been writing flat, boring, humourless and inhuman books for so long
>that the public expects them to be that way.
Too true. I have seen the odd manual popping up lately that puts a more
"human" spin on things, talking to you as if it were just a friend explaining
things to you. This, I like. Unfortunately, I'm not yet in a position to
dictate that anyone's documentation be written this way ;)
>In my early days, I kept asking my bosses: people read magazines, they do
>not read the manual. Why?
No beer ads with girls in bikinis in manuals :-)
>Damn I wish OS/2 had been useful! It just felt so nice.
Useful? Until a couple weeks ago, when I got a program from my bank to let me
do my banking online and such that requires Windows, I was very happily
running PROTECTONLY=YES - no Windows, not even DOS support installed. Had no
need for it. Now I've installed 15MB of crap (13 for Windows, another 2 to
put DOS support back in) just to be able to use this banking program; I use NO
other Windows software. Sheesh.
Windows 95 FIXPACK now available! http://www.austin.ibm.com for more info!
---------------------------
"Maybe all I need, besides my pills and surgery
is a new metaphor for reality..." - Queensr che
