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Subject:Fear and Loathing, Part 2 From:Bruce Byfield <bbyfield -at- axionet -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Thu, 08 May 2003 21:19:34 -0700
A small addition to my earlier rant:
Today, I started going over an existing manual step by step. The section
I was focusing on involved installing a number of pieces of open source
software before installing the main product.
The same writer whose work I was fulminating about earlier:
- totally omitted any instructives about installing the java SDK before
installing tomcat
- mixed instructions for installing apache and mySQL
- included instructions that should go at the end of all the
installation in the middle of them, thereby demanding that tomcat be
started in the middle of its installation.
I strongly suspect that the instructions were patched together without
any attempt to actually do the installations. How else could such a mess
have been created?
What's worse, these instructions were sent out to the customers without
any reviewers catching the gaffs.
And, whatever you do, don't get me started about the erratic layout.
Fortunately for my blood pressure, instead of getting angry, I'm
starting to get a wicked amusement out of what I'm seeing. In fact, I
can't wait to see what I find yet.
Everyday's just a wonderful voyage of discovery ...
"We'll rant and we'll roar like true British sailors,
We'll rant and we'll roar all across the salt seas,
Until we strike soundings in the channel of old England,
From Ushant to Scilly, 'tis thirty-five leagues."
-Traditional
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