[8571] in Athena Bugs
[daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU : rt 7.3P: online help]
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Calvin Clark)
Tue Nov 12 10:38:08 1991
Date: Tue, 12 Nov 91 10:38:04 -0500
From: Calvin Clark <ckclark@Athena.MIT.EDU>
To: doc-bugs@Athena.MIT.EDU
Cc: belville@Athena.MIT.EDU, cavan@eagle.MIT.EDU
Reply-To: ckclark@mit.edu
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[8563] daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Dave Reiley) Athena Bugs 11/10/91 11:35 (43 lines)
Subject: rt 7.3P: online help
To: bugs@Athena.MIT.EDU
Date: Sun, 10 Nov 91 11:35:05 EST
From: Dave Reiley <reiley@Athena.MIT.EDU>
System name: e40-008-13
Type and version: RTPC-ROMPC 7.3P (1 update(s) to same version)
Display type:
What were you trying to do?
obtain help & learn how to use "Dotfiles"
What's wrong:
During the course of the semester, I have been trying to use OLH to
teach myself systematically about how to use the different features
of UNIX and Athena. Sometimes I find that the online help pages are
not user-friendly enough, and this is such a case.
Under the "Working with Athena" manual, I chose option 14: Working with
Configuration Files ("Dotfiles"). Unfortunately, I find the information
there a little too technical to really understand. It seems that one would
have to be familiar already with Dotfiles in order to be able to understand
the help file. If you don't quite see what I mean, pretend that you've
never edited (or even seen) a dotfile before, and read the "overview" in
that frame of mind. I really think that the help in that section needs
to be made a lot more explicit.
What should have happened:
The online help program should have been able to explain to me, the
novice, exactly what a dotfile is (I did have some idea, because of
prior experience with consultants telling me to edit a ".environment"
file, or something, but I don't think it's a good idea in general to
assume that people have such experience.) It should also have explained
to me why there are so many different kinds of dotfiles, and what they
do. And mention the fact that they are invisible to the ordinary
ls command, etc.
Hope my suggestion is helpful. In the meantime, can you suggest to
me a reference where I can go to start learning this information?
For example, how can I understand the difference between .login, .startup.tty,
.cshrc, .cshrc.mine, .environment, etc.?
[Please replace this line with your information.]
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