why learn UNIX

[Mike McNamara]

 ->>In a recent article bzs at bu-cs.BU.EDU (Barry Shein) wrote:
 ->>From: alan at herman.UUCP (Alan Kiecker)
 ->>>One of our directors is on an advisory board to one of our state colleges.
 ->>>Currently the college is using a VAX VMS system, but is considering moving
 ->>>over to UNIX...
 ->>...
 ->>
 ->>	6. Manuals - The full set of UNIX manuals is readily available
 ->>	and inexpensive (a very complete set should cost around $100,
 ->>	a more than adequate set probably less half that.) ...
 ->>	VMS manual sets are several times more...
 ->>	expensive and not readily available. I've never seen a tutorial
 ->>	or self-help type book on VMS in the popular press...
 ->>
 -> And Garry Wiegand   (garry%cadif-oak at cu-arpa.cs.cornell.edu) commented:
 ->>Not fair. The Unix manuals are cheap because they:
 ->>
 ->>	1) Are cryptic and obscure,
 ->>	2) Are not kept up-to-date,
 ->>	3) Contain no examples,
 ->>	4) Contain no index,
 ->>	5) Assume that you're a wizard.
 ->>
 ->>DEC publishes a number of "tutorial and self-help" books -- there aren't
 ->>the popular press books partly because the original manufacturer has acted
 ->>responsibly and published them itself. After all, would you prefer to buy 
 ->>a "Guide to programming in Fortran on XXX" or "Guide to Text Editing" from 
 ->>the manufacturer or from some unknown hacker author?
 ->>
 ->	One of the best things Hewlett Packard & Sun Microsystems have done
 ->	for Unix is rewrite and add to the documentation set.  The
 ->	particularily valuable additions these companies have made is to
 ->	write beginners' guides.  I have recommended these guides to new users
 ->	of machines like Valids, or other unix based systems.  
 ->
 ->	Perhaps the strongest need that exists in unix, however, is not another
 ->	round of "Introduction to the Unix Shell", but rather a complete
 ->	rewrite of the Manual set, so that users can find those utilities
 ->	we are always seeing source code poping up for in net.sources; RTFM
 ->	is just too difficult.
 ->
 ->	Of course, I personally, would be much more interested in working on
 ->	implementing Unix on a heterogeneous collection of processors...
 ->
 ->	So, ATT, Berkeley, get together a bunch of Technical writers and
 ->	document the d**m thing!!
 ->
 ->>	10. UNIX has better games :-)
 ->>
 ->>true
 ->		-Barry Shein, Boston University
 ->>
 ->>garry wiegand   (garry%cadif-oak at cu-arpa.cs.cornell.edu)
 ->>

 Michael Mc Namara                 
 ESL Incorporated                 
 ARPA: mac%esl at lll-lcc.ARPA    
-- 
 Michael Mc Namara                 
 ESL Incorporated                 
 ARPA: mac%esl at lll-lcc.ARPA