If you find it that difficult, make a suggestion to the MySQL team in how
you think they can improve it.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Doug Young" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "Matt Wagner" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; "Neff Patrick K"
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Cc: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Friday, January 12, 2001 6:11
Subject: Re: Please read the manual
> If I may add my 0.5c here too, the MySQL manual, like so many of its kind
> was obviously written by a highly skilled developer(/s) but who, like
> virtually all of that ilk, lacks the ability to impart knowledge to
others.
> As always, the issue is largely that of ignoring countless items
considered
> trivial by those of developer status but which are critical to others.
Most
> of us are aware that open source developers don't draw a wage etc like eg
> Microsoft staff, however that doesn't change the fact that the "official"
> documentation format is far from explicit enough for many non-experts. I
> personally believe the MySQL docs are probably a bit better than the
average
> for unix related applications but they still leave a lot to be desired.
Its
> a similar situation to that existing with most unix / linux man pages ....
> time & time again we see experts going on about RTFM, however all those
> things do is totally confuse newbies.
>
> Now before all the experts around here start yelling about how much they
> like the format of manuals etc etc, consider the amount of traffic on this
> list. I'm subscribed to a number of lists, but none of them generates
> anywhere near the traffic of [EMAIL PROTECTED] . That alone should
> provide clear indication that a heap of mysql users just can't get the
> answers they need from the documentation. A similar situation existed with
> FreeBSD for many years ..... newbies bugging the mailing lists because of
> inadequate explanation in official documentation .... experts going hoarse
> from screaming RTFM .... then fairly recently a few relative newbies went
> out & built some user-friendly tutorial sites that cut the level of newbie
> frustration dramatically. Hopefully someone who is new enough to MySQL to
> recall the needless frustration but experienced to make a contribution
will
> do something similar in the near future.
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Matt Wagner" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> To: "Neff Patrick K" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> Cc: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> Sent: Friday, January 12, 2001 7:43 AM
> Subject: RE: Please read the manual
>
>
> > Neff Patrick K writes:
> > >
> > > <cut>
> > >
> > > I in fact finally got mysql up and running last night but not one
> > > word in your manual helped me do it. So in fact all the reading in
> > > the world would have left me sitting in the same position.
> >
> > Neff,
> >
> > What stumbling blocks in the documentation did you run across? What
> > can we add (new sections, rewordings, etc) to help the many that will
> > likely follow the same frustrating path you just did?
> >
> >
> > Matt
> >
> > --
> > __ ___ ___ ____ __
> > / |/ /_ __/ __/ __ \/ / Matt Wagner <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> > / /|_/ / // /\ \/ /_/ / /__ MySQL AB, http://www.mysql.com/
> > /_/ /_/\_, /___/\___\_\___/ River Falls, Wisconsin, USA
> > <___/ Developer
> >
> >
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>
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