Setting up a second monitor

[Daniel Carrera]

Antony Gelberg wrote:
>> The X config file is, in my honest opinion, quite complicated. 
>> Throwing documentation at something complicated doesn't make it less 
>> complicated, it makes it well documented.
> 
> Either way, the documentation aids user-understanding.

It's not as simple as that. I can walk Jean through the process more 
clearly than what she'd get from reading a man page.

>>> One can always man lspci to find out what the program does.
>>
>> Therefore I should never tell people what any command does? 
> 
> I didn't say that.

It seems to be your logic.

>>> Are you suggesting that everyone who has configured X is strong as an 
>>> ox?
>>
>> Are you familiar with the expression "not for the faint of heart"?
> 
> Do you often answer a question with a question?

When it's relevant. If you are not a native English speaker perhaps I 
should explain that expression. Your comment suggests that you don't 
understand it.

>> So, I should not offer to help under the assumption that she has 
>> already solved it? I'd rather offer to help.
> 
> It's not quite clear to me what help you're actually providing, not that 
> that matters in and of itself.

I gave what I thought were clearer instructions and I offered to help 
edit the config file directly.

> I feel that this is not a complicated 
> request from the user and why make it out to be so?

I think that the process is complicated and I won't help by pretending 
that it's not. I'll help more by offering to help edit the config file 
and being honest about the difficulty. I hate it when someone says that 
xyz is easy and I find that it's not.

> Is it a fact that man pages are inappropriate for new users or just your 
> opinion?

It's a fact that reference documentation is not for someone totally 
unfamiliar with a concept, and that for new users benefit more from 
tutorials. And yes, I do have experience writing documentation as well 
as teaching complex concepts (I'm a teacher and a writer).

> For the OP's task, there is no option but to edit the config file.  If 
> the how-to is not clear, the man page is a good next port-of-call.

Reading the man page is some ways down the list. I can provide better 
help than the man page provides and I will.

> There is no compulsion for the user to read the entire page as he can just 
> scan it for the relevant sections.

This works better when you are already familiar with man pages and 
Linux. Again, this is the problem with reference documents. They 
generally aren't very useful to someone completely new.

Daniel.
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