Re: RTFM!

[Matt Ion <soundy -at- MAIL -dot- BC -dot- ROGERS -dot- WAVE -dot- CA>]

On Tue, 11 Nov 1997 09:05:26 +0000, Damien Braniff wrote:

>Over the years I have found that there are two types of people - those who
>read the lit and those who don't.  RTFM is aimed squarely at the latter
>type.

Here, here!

>From input from tech support NOT reading the manual is common and
>varies from company to company - they get to know which ones are which.

I concur.  My experience on IBM's help desk confirm this: a solid 50% of
the calls I took, I solved by simply reading to the caller out of the
manual.  Said caller would then thank me profusely, offer me his
firstborn, or otherwise treat me as some form of deity.  These are the
people to whom RTFM applies... those who only crack the manual to find
the number for tech support, those who "can't be bothered" to look things
up for themselves... those who really, REALLY need a good smack upside
the head!

>As to it causing offense - generally I've only ever heard it used "locally"
>where people agree with the sentiment!

Agreed again.  Very rarely have I seen it actually used in documentation,
and certainly never in "professional" documentation (it's generally
relegated to README.TXT files bundled with shareware).


 Your friend and mine,
 Matt
 <insert standard disclaimer here>
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