56 Documentation? Unix Without Words: A Course Proposal Date: Fri, 24 Apr 92 12:58:28 PST From: cj@eno.corp.sgi.com (C J Silverio) Organization: SGI TechPubs Newsgroups: talk.bizarre1 Subject: Unix Without Words [During one particularly vitriolic flame war about the uselessness of documentation, I wrote the following proposal. I never posted it, because I am a coward… I finally post it here, for your edification.] Unix Ohne Worter Well! I’ve been completely convinced by the arguments presented here on the uselessness of documentation. In fact, I’ve become con- vinced that documentation is a drug, and that my dependence on it is artificial. I can overcome my addiction, with professional help. And what’s more, I feel morally obliged to cease peddling this useless drug for a living. I’ve decided to go back to math grad school to reeducate myself, and get out of this parasitic profession. Perhaps it just reveals the depth of my addiction to documentation, but I do see the need for SGI to ship one document with our next release. I see this book as transitional only. We can eliminate it for the following release. Here’s my proposal: TITLE: “Unix Without Words” AUDIENCE: The Unix novice. OVERVIEW: Gives a general strategy for approaching Unix without documentation. Presents generalizable principles useful for deciphering any operating system without the crutch of documentation. CONTENTS: 1Forwarded to UNIX-HATERS by Judy Anderson.

Unix Without Words: A Course Proposal 57 INTRO: overview of the ‘no doc’ philosophy why manuals are evil why man pages are evil why you should read this book despite the above “this is the last manual you'll EVER read!” CHAP 1: guessing which commands are likely to exist CHAP 2: guessing what commands are likely to be called unpredictable acronyms the Unix way usage scenario: “grep” CHAP 3: guessing what options commands might take deciphering cryptic usage messages usage scenario: “tar” guessing when order is important usage scenario: SYSV “find” CHAP 4: figuring out when it worked: silence on success recovering from errors CHAP 5: the oral tradition: your friend CHAP 6: obtaining & maintaining a personal UNIX guru feeding your guru keeping your guru happy the importance of full news feeds why your guru needs the fastest machine available free Coke: the elixir of your guru’s life maintaining your guru’s health when DO they sleep? CHAP 7: troubleshooting: when your guru won’t speak to you identifying stupid questions safely asking stupid questions CHAP 8: accepting your stress coping with failure ----------