Re: [MacPerl] installing libraries in mac perl

[Ronald J Kimball <rjk@linguist.dartmouth.edu>]

On Wed, Oct 20, 1999 at 09:18:01AM +0000, Bart Lateur wrote:
> On Tue, 19 Oct 1999 17:54:02 -0400, Chris Nandor wrote:
> 
> >First, I don't see a problem.  If you cannot read "DISREGARD THE
> >INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS BELOW" then you can't follow the (inappropriate)
> >installation instructions that follow.
> 
> What a horrible condensending attitude.

I don't think that's condescending.  How obvious does the notice need to be
so that people know to disregard the installation instructions?


> >I do not like, at all, the idea of changing docs.  A note at the top of the
> >docs is the only change I would ever make to the README.  I think anything
> >else is bad form.
> 
> I don't see the need to distribute any totally irrelevant stuff. If
> people want the original docs, there are places enough where they can
> find them, e.g. in a distribution for a platform where it IS relevant.

I disagree.  All of the original docs should be distributed with MacPerl,
just as they are distributed with every other Perl package.  If I don't
want to read the docs for some other platform, it is simple enough to
ignore them.


> What's the need for all this intimidation? Only absolute newbies will
> ever attempt to read these docs. They don't even understand all that
> they're reading, so it should be made as painless as possible. Stuff you
> don't need to know AT ALL shouldn't be in there. Period.

Well, by all means let's take out all those modules that are included with
Perl, because lots of people don't need those AT ALL.


> If you don't provide a newbie-friendly introduction README, then you'll
> probably deter some people from even TRYING OUT MacPerl. They'll
> download it, take one look at these docs, and throw everything in the
> bin.

If someone can't handle a folder full of documentation, then they shouldn't
be using MacPerl or any other Perl.  I expect that's condescending too.  So
be it.


Ronald

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