Re: FW: What goes where?
Re: FW: What goes where?
- Subject: Re: FW: What goes where?
- From: //aSaM// <email@hidden>
- Date: Sat, 1 Mar 2003 04:00:56 +0200
Most of X is documented in the manual. Use "man X" as the starting
point. While it doesn't give information about every file, it does
about many. It gives pointers based on topics that will lead to the
others.
The manual is terse, and not written to be entertaining. However,
it is the best (and many times only) reference documenting Unix
systems that most people have. The more times that people are
referred to it, the more likely they are to read some and start
understanding instead of just copying what other people write. Of
course, we still need to give people answers to their questions, or
they will just go away and never learn.
As a 'newbie' I'd like to add some things to this discussion.
Although I'm not new to UNIX this is the first time I have root power
and can explore the OS down any route my curiosity takes me. Even
being a UNIX user it has been difficult for me on my own to find the
right place to start finding the information for myself.
For example, only by reading here do I find out that to get the
manual pages I was looking for I needed man X. I was trying man X11!
Then I was searching though the directories of my installation and
tried Xman. What the hell is this by the way and what does all that
groff created stuff mean? Although everything in Xman is meaningless
to me I really like the format. Is there a way I can make man pages
appear with this kind of X interface?
<rant>
Now, the problem here caused by Apple: they have not
created/updated the documentation about how they have modified the
system for the beta. Of course, it is a beta!
</rant>
Hopefully by the time Apple releases the final version of X11 all the
information about where to look for information like man X will be in
the most obvious place a Mac user looks; in the Mac OS X Finder help
menu and using the Help Viewer application.
Maybe examples of basic tschrc, bashrc, profile, etc. would be
useful as well as starting points for customizing our systems.
I'd like Apple to stick in some short Quicktime video tutorials and
maybe short lectures (VTC style but within the Help Viewer files) to
describe all the basics about UNIX like what each shell is useful for
and what the main differences are.
Learning the shell well will also lead to understanding the rest of
Unix. A path through learning an using the shell will lead to
learning about the file system, basic security, process creation and
completion, signals, and streams. This is a good start along the
path to grok Unix and ultimate happiness.
That's assuming every Mac user wants to be a full time UNIX admin.
The reason most of use Macs in the first place is because we don't
really want to geek out too much but just want to get on with
productive and creative stuff. We just want to get on with using the
UNIX applications but we have to get them all installed ourselves not
like before when we just used to email the admin and tell him what we
wanted to use. You're speaking as a UNIX user not as a Mac OS X user,
they are not the same thing, a Mac OS X user does not spend all day
reading manual pages to do basic things like learning about security
to set up a fire wall, they just go to the preferences and press a
button. Is this not what Mac OS X is about ;)
I would also caution about beginning too early to customize the
system. Many here who want customizations only want them because
they've grown used to other systems working that way. (I can't
count the number of times I've seen customizations to make the shell
look more like MS-DOS. It reminds me of people using #defines in C
to make it look like Pascal.) If you don't require a change to the
default, try it for a while. Then you'll have some basis for making
a decision.
Again you are speaking as a UNIX user. If we wanted a standard look
we would be using Windoze but the reason we use Mac is because it has
always been the OS for the ultimate customizers and we want our OS to
be as different as we are :)
While many (myself included <grin />) think that Apple doesn't give
enough configurations to OS X, most will agree that Unix, including
X11, gives more than enough options for even the most sophisticated
user to shoot themselves in both feet. Most of the defaults,
however, make sense. Keep in mind that you hear on this list from
people who want to change the default behaviors, but you don't here
from the rest who like them like they are.
What is the point of Mac OS X then?
Respect to all the super roots users out there and their knowledge,
but hey,
Think Different <grin / oi oi / :)~>
Asam...
--
\______\\ currently running a _eta preview of reality \\________________\
<http://homepage.mac.com/asam/> ICQ:13706065 * ask for public PGP key
PGP fingerprint: B8C8 B78F F664 2DC8 2BA6 B5D4 5025 22D3 680C 4B96
[Mobile Athens: +306976394692 ]
\-------------->\\__________ | Meme Dealer) |_____________\\<----\
_______________________________________________
x11-users mailing list | email@hidden
Help/Unsubscribe/Archives: http://www.lists.apple.com/mailman/listinfo/x11-users
X11 for Mac OS X FAQ: http://developer.apple.com/qa/qa2001/qa1232.html
Report issues, request features, feedback: http://developer.apple.com/bugreporter
Do not post admin requests to the list. They will be ignored.