ugh.book

56 Documentation?

Unix Without Words: A Course Proposal ...................................

Date: Fri, 24 Apr 92 12:58:28 PST

From: [email protected] (C J Silverio)

Organization: SGI TechPubs

Newsgroups: talk.bizarre^1

Subject: Unix Without Words

[During one particularly vitriolic flame war about the uselessness of

documentation, I wrote the following proposal. I never posted it,

because I am a coward... I finally post it here, for your edification.]

Unix Ohne Worter

Well! I’ve been completely convinced by the arguments presented

here on the uselessness of documentation. In fact, I’ve become con-

vinced that documentation is a drug, and that my dependence on it is

artificial. I can overcome my addiction, with professional help.

And what’s more, I feel morally obliged to cease peddling this

useless drug for a living. I’ve decided to go back to math grad school

to reeducate myself, and get out of this parasitic profession.

Perhaps it just reveals the depth of my addiction to documentation,

but I do see the need for SGI to ship one document with our next

release. I see this book as transitional only. We can eliminate it for

the following release.

Here’s my proposal:

TITLE: “Unix Without Words”

AUDIENCE: The Unix novice.

OVERVIEW: Gives a general strategy for approaching Unix without

documentation. Presents generalizable principles useful for

deciphering any operating system without the crutch of

documentation.

CONTENTS:

(^1) Forwarded to UNIX-HATERS by Judy Anderson.