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- Xref: sparky comp.lang.fortran:4781 comp.lang.c++:18087 comp.lang.c:18488
- Newsgroups: comp.lang.fortran,comp.lang.c++,comp.lang.c
- Path: sparky!uunet!spool.mu.edu!uwm.edu!ux1.cso.uiuc.edu!milo.mcs.anl.gov!pepper.ra.anl.gov!froehle
- From: froehle@pepper.ra.anl.gov (P Froehle RE/207/xxx 4882)
- Subject: Re: Examples in Documentation
- Message-ID: <7245402434522@pepper.ra.anl.gov>
- Sender: usenet@mcs.anl.gov
- Nntp-Posting-Host: pepper.ra.anl.gov
- Organization: Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne IL
- References: <1992Dec1.182234.18284@metaware.metaware.com> <1gdm89INN6bj@gazette.bcm.tmc.edu> <1992Dec16.090900.12289@thunder.mcrcim.mcgill.edu>
- Date: Wed, 16 Dec 1992 21:10:43 GMT
- Lines: 32
-
- In article <1992Dec16.090900.12289@thunder.mcrcim.mcgill.edu> mouse@thunder.mcrcim.mcgill.edu (der Mouse) writes:
- >In article <1gdm89INN6bj@gazette.bcm.tmc.edu>, rick@crick.ssctr.bcm.tmc.edu (Richard H. Miller) writes:
- >
- >[A bunch of stuff, most of which I agree with, but...]
- >
- >> One other point, electronic documentation is great for reference
- >> manuals but there will always be a need to paper manuals especially
- >> when one is developing some of these more complicated things. It is
- >> easier to have that manual open and be able to flip it depending on
- >> how things do, It is also useful to have the manual at the side or on
- >> your lap rather than have to switch screens to look at the manual and
- >> back to look at your code.
- >
- >Speak for yourself. I much prefer online text for reference, because I
- >don't have to look away from the screen, don't have to try to keep five
- >different places at once in a paper document, etc, and most especially
- >can snarf-&-barf examples or declarations or sometimes even running
- >text from the docs into what I'm working on. (If the online
- >documentation is in a form that makes this impossible, such as
- >PostScript that I have to run GhostScript to look at, it is at best
- >marginally better and often significantly worse than paper.)
- >
- > der Mouse
- >
- > mouse@larry.mcrcim.mcgill.edu
-
- If a program cannot be run from the documentation available on the screen,
- it is not worth the money you pay for it. This is my personal criteria
- for buying programs.
-
- ..paul ... phfroehle@anl.gov
-
-