CompuServe Messages

Amiga products that come without printed documentation are almost worthless to me. I like to read the whole manual when I have some quiet time (like on the train to and from work or at 2am when that 3 hour render job is finally under way) and since there is no such thing as a laptop Amiga, I have to be glued to my machine to RTFM. Besides, on-line manuals are rarely as good as the printed ones (UNIX man pages excepted: they're identical). After writing two on-line manuals myself, I've figured out why: on-line manual authors get into the same "instant gratification" mindset that most users are normally in, leading to a big blob of procedural information that lacks detail. Manual writing is very, very boring. Couple that with the short attention span that on-line help systems force on you and you end up with glop. I do like on-line docs as long as they supplement the full manual. Prompts that help you remember the details of a command/procedure are very helpful as most people will know how they want to do something but they often forget the details of the "how". The printed word may be cumbersome (and expensive too), but it is still the easiest way to document some things. Besides, manuals don't suffer from drive crashes, power failures, or your spouse's fumble-fingered attempts to free up some space for her shopping list. BTW, I disagree with your dismissal of AmigaGuide. I'm writing a off-line message reader with it as the display end. It's actually pretty flexible if you take the time to learn it. But then, you march to the drum of a different beater <:-)