preece (02/24/83)
#R:sbcs:-20800:uicsl:5400005:000:1696 uicsl!preece Feb 23 11:42:00 1983 The suggestion that one refer to the book for the answers to questions ignores that fact that the book is only searchable in a limited number of ways. There are a hell of a lot of questions that come up in using Unix that either aren't answered in the book at all or are answered in obscure places. Contrary to the opinion of another note in this file, computer use is very much an oral tradition. God knows most of us never write anything down. Obviously, this shouldn't be the case, and I promise my NEXT project will have proper paper documentation... If we had a concordance of the full Unix Programmer's Manual, both man sections and accompanying papers, we might sometimes be able to find the particular datum needed to get something done, but we don't have one and the present index is useful only if the word you use to describe what you're looking for happens to be the word the author used AND the object of your search happens to be mentioned at the very top level of description. Every dumb question that gets asked here is of interest to a significant number of readers, even if it seems dumb to those of us who already know the answer. Now, I admit my patience with answers to dumb questions is enhanced by the use of the notesfile system, so that answers are often clustered under the question and can be skipped en masse, but it really is important to remember that this net's readers are not a homogeneous mass and include many novices or near novices. And if your luck with mailing out to the net is good, I salute you. Mine isn't. I feel a lot more confident that a posted answer will get to at least some of those interested in it. scott preece uiuc-coordinated science lab