Timeline for About RTFM etiquette
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
11 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apr 23, 2020 at 16:24 | comment | added | 0xC0000022L | What's wrong with "Read The Friendly Manual"? ... ;) | |
| Jan 25, 2016 at 7:54 | vote | accept | Ignasi | ||
| Jan 24, 2016 at 2:26 | comment | added | cfr | I wasn't disagreeing with you as such. Only you implied that such references are primarily appropriate as implicit admonishments, but I think they can be valuable when no such implication is appropriate. I often include them when I certainly have no intention of communicating any kind of criticism for not finding the information, however subtle. (Doh! This is covered in footnote 345a on page 4576 in appendix G.... ?? Not really.....) | |
| Jan 24, 2016 at 2:05 | comment | added | David Carlisle | @cfr I think manual references as part of an answer are a good thing, but the question I thought was about answers that just said "read the manual" or in fact just said "rtfm" I don't think these are ever really suitable for the site. | |
| Jan 24, 2016 at 1:52 | comment | added | cfr | Given that I'm not the only person I've seen ask 'where is this in the manual?' in comments, I figure this information really can be helpful. And there is also an implication that a series of follow-up minor-adjustment questions shouldn't be necessary. | |
| Jan 24, 2016 at 1:50 | comment | added | cfr | I think there's another case where giving a documentation reference can be helpful. Suppose somebody wants to know how to do X and I answer using something like TikZ or maybe I adapt their code to use a library they didn't mention or.... Sometimes I figure they may well want to tweak things further and I'll say where in the manual details can be found. For libraries this is sometimes obvious - but some libraries have a lot of pages, so not always. But for other things, it isn't always easy to find and specific references can make it easier to learn more about a new-to-me command or library. | |
| Jan 21, 2016 at 16:56 | comment | added | Johannes_B | Being annoyed might be the wrong wording. On the other hand, if it really is just a small detail, i don't think opening up a new question is really necessary. That is where the Q/A systems comes to its limits. | |
| Jan 21, 2016 at 13:45 | comment | added | percusse | Amen to your comment. By the way, @Johannes_B you are not even obliged to answer. | |
| Jan 21, 2016 at 10:47 | comment | added | David Carlisle | @Johannes_B don't get annoyed, just don't answer, and ask the OP to open a new question (or ignore, you are not obliged to answer comments). | |
| Jan 21, 2016 at 9:42 | comment | added | Johannes_B | "Just one little detail, can you make this bold?; Ah, just noticed, head does not align, how fix that?" If it is a stream of details that needs to be fixed, one after one, i tend to get annoyed. | |
| Jan 21, 2016 at 9:31 | history | answered | David Carlisle | CC BY-SA 3.0 |