Re: The end.

Tau <nill@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

: The
: reason my minimal examples were not minimal in the sense that you understood
: the word is that I could never be quite sure exactly what was causing the
: problem.

You say it yourself, the examples were not minimal. If you were not quite
sure what exactly caused a problem, why on earth didn't you try to remove
line after line from your code in order to watch whether the problem persists?
After such a procedure, the remaining few lines of code demonstrating a
problem constitute a minimal example.

I fail to understand why you prefer to take repeated bashings for your
unwillingnees, laziness and sloppyness rather than to go through a few
simple steps.

: reason that that people like Paul Aubin retire in their early thirties
: (that's just a guess as regards Aubin) from hugely well-paid jobs to make
: even huger amounts of money writing ultra-easy, step-by-step, instructions

Are you sure this is called "retiring"? In my understanding, this is a new
job.

: for computer packages that are simple to assimiliate by people who are
: either very simple or who have divergent minds that will read anything into
: anything, given the opportunity. In all the TeX guidelines I have read, the
: typical person with a non-linear, divergent, intuitive mind will, by the
: time they get to about page 3, be terrified: go on and they are in a swamp
: of information the expressions in which they think they never interpreted
: correctly; turn back and they are in a minefield they thought they might
: just, up to this point where they know they are now stuck, have negotiated.

The best and simple documentation will become complex when complex tasks
are involved, and won't be a remedy against short attention spans. And
the best documentation is useless if the user cannot even follow the most
fundamental guidance --- like the simple request for a log file. Complexity
is at the heart of our lives, and cutting through complexity is a formidable
task. This, however needs cooperation rather than complaints.

Given your mentioning of Paul Aubin, I had a look at his introduction of
AutoDesk (http://www.paulaubin.com/pdf/mastering_aad_ch2.pdf) and in my
eyes, his reading involved active attention and participation by the reader
as much as reading the introductory pages to lshort.pdf (the not so short
LaTeX introduction) requires. First, the concepts and essentials are rolled
out; then, the workflow is demonstrated; then, the first example is done.

I truly wonder how you can claim to be able to read the one while finding
yourself "in a mine field" when reading the other.

I tend so see panic while approaching deadlines as a major cause of
irritation and incoherence when reading the LaTeX stuff.

Oliver.
--
Dr. Oliver Corff e-mail: corff@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
.

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