[6299] in s-news-athena
Re: Help understandability
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (MR THURMAN B WENZL)
Sat Jan 28 20:57:42 1995
Date: Sat, 28 Jan 1995 20:28:16 EST
From: CZGA45A@prodigy.com (MR THURMAN B WENZL)
To: s-news@utstat.toronto.edu
-- [ From: Thurman Wenzl * EMC.Ver #2.10P ] --
SUBJECT: Re: news from S-news
I sympathize with Lyle's problems understanding the 'Help' explanations;
I think the extreme generality of the examples is part of the problem.
What someone needs to do is go further, with simpler and more specific
examples of a command and what the result is, which in this case seems
to be to count up the appearances of a specific entry. This generality
is presumably the source of the versatility of the software, but there
are lots of us struggling with the Help screens.
I hope people saw Dave Krantz' note - on the gradualness of this
learning process; I took it as encouraging, though the opposite
interpretation is possible.
I hope someone starts writing the more complete examples I'm looking
for; Venable in the new Springer book seems aimed only at those who are
already deeply conversant in the language.
Hopefully, Thurman Wenzl, NIOSH Cinti
tyw1@nioshe2.em.cdc.gov (preferred, at work)
