On Sat, 21 Oct 2006, Thor Lancelot Simon wrote:

> I am very, very glad that I did not "learn" anything (more properly, I would
> say, come to pretend that I "knew" various things I didn't understand at all)
> from "HowTo" files.

   I think we must be talking about completely different things.  Clearly 
my experiences with howtos are nothing like yours.

   I don't think I would have ever "gotten" TCP/IP without Hubert Feyrer's 
(I think) networking intro, or something much like it, to take an example. 
(back in the 1.2 stone age sometime)  There are also lots of Linux HOWTOs 
that really helped me understand various parts of my then-system.  Not to 
mention making me aware certain things were even *possible*.

   If, by "howto", you mean only "list of steps", I guess we might have 
some common ground.  If you are doing things you do not understand, 
without background information, you are going to be in trouble soon.  That 
is why a decent howto should be more than just describing the steps.


> Actually doing the work to figure out how complex things work, from
> correct explanations of more basic things, is a very important part of
> the learning process.  If one doesn't do it, one really never acquires
> the ability to solve _new_ problems, instead of just parroting the
> solutions to problems others have solved before.

   Again, I'm not sure I see the point.  Are you saying that the 
documentation exists as a tool to make me a better problem solver?  That 
doesn't make sense to me, so I must be reading you wrong.


   And to be able to work things out for yourself, you must have access to 
correct documentation, and time to figure out where everything is.  That 
is not a luxury you always have.

   If I was about to do something I have never done before, I would 
certainly prefer a specific-to-the-task howto type document, with pointers 
to in depth docs.  (Which, coincidentally, describes some parts of the 
Guide pretty well too..)


MAgnus