> I'm not sure that it is good enough for Protel to decide that new users > are insufficiently competent to understand more advanced concepts. I > clearly remember way back in the days of Orcad SDT III getting instructions > about writing drivers at the back of the manual!! Also how to construct > symbols from Ascii files ( a bit wierd that was but it worked).
I agree, I like having in-depth technical info available when I need it. But the tech business trends are in the exact opposite direction, and have been since the late 80's. I remember when: 1) Software came with big thick manuals, most of which were well written and useful (examples: Wordperfect 5.1 for DOS, Quattro Pro 3.0 for DOS, Borland C/C++ v3.0, etc.) 2) Consumer electronics items came with schematics at the back of the owner's manual (example: most Radio Shack stuff before mid-80's). 3) There were no multi-lingual manuals, just English only for goods sold into the U.S. market 4) You could call a company's tech support and actually get a real live human on the phone without waiting very long. And that human actually knew something about the product and spoke English in an understandable accent. Oh, how I wish we could bring it back... But, the tech business world operates by different precepts now, such as: 5) Users are idiots, and wouldn't be able to read manuals anyway 6) Tech support staff only needs to know how to tell the user to reboot their computer, no other skill is necessary. 7) No consumer knows how to read a schematic anyway. Some just think they do. And they will electrocute themselves trying to service their own equipment, and then sue us. 8) We've got to publish every language in our manuals, so we don't have to bother printing different versions appropriate for a given market. Never mind that the user, if he can read at all, and if he is not too lazy to read, will have to find that special 5% of the manual that is actually in his language. Best regards, Ivan Baggett Bagotronix Inc. website: www.bagotronix.com ----- Original Message ----- From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Protel EDA Forum" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Tuesday, June 24, 2003 4:48 AM Subject: Re: [PEDA] OrCad to Protel * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * To post a message: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] * * To leave this list visit: * http://www.techservinc.com/protelusers/leave.html * * Contact the list manager: * mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] * * Forum Guidelines Rules: * http://www.techservinc.com/protelusers/forumrules.html * * Browse or Search previous postings: * http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED] * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
