Of course one should always check the manual and try a web search before asking for help. This is a given, and I don't think there's any argument.
It's not always easy to find what you're looking for in the manual, and it's not always straightforward to construct a search query that yields what you're looking for. Your success varies with multiple factors: your facility with reading *and* with writing English, as noted; the way you're framing the problem in your mind; the character of the problem; the terminology involved; the organizational structure of the manual vs. the kind of problem you're trying to solve; your existing familiarity with the subject and with the reference material available. These can interplay to make one person's search fruitless, or to suggest that further search will be fruitless, while another person might come up with the answer right away. So a person posts to a list that is nominally for providing support, answers, and discussion. How can I fairly judge whether he's read the manual, or how deeply? Just based on my knowing where the answer is, and thinking "he should have found it too?" I don't think that's a fair measure. Yet I don't think it's the point, either. Even if someone has not done his own legwork, how is anyone's time well spent for me to tell them publically to do so? I don't see that, as someone suggested, this is helpful. It's condescending. It's saying: "it's there, you missed it. Look again. But I won't say where to look because I think the exercise of finding it yourself is good for you, grasshopper." Even in this thread, Bill's question just by being asked has sparked original discussion of other approaches than what you'll find in the manual. Is there no value in that? Does anyone suggest some other way to obtain that benefit, besides having and expressing a need? It's absurd to say that you should not post a how-to question to a mailing list until you're sure the answer is not already out there, or prepared with your flame-retardant jammies. If I don't have time to help with a basic question, or I don't want to, or I resent the simplicity of the question or the way it was asked, I don't reply. It's simple, it causes no grief. The question, unanswered, has done me no harm. I am facile with my 'd' key. What's the trouble? Let people ask questions honestly and politely, but if all you have to give is "rtfm", with no reference or citation or vague hint at a substantive answer, then don't bother replying -- or at least keep it out of the mailing list archive and my mailbox, please. Save "RTFM" for abusive and demanding inquiries only, and you'll see less abuse and fewer demands. -- -D. [EMAIL PROTECTED] NSIT University of Chicago
