From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Msuck: nntp://news.gmane.io/gmane.emacs.gnus.general/88737 Path: news.gmane.org!.POSTED.blaine.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: dick Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.gnus.general Subject: Re: Proposed new introductory section to the Gnus manual Date: Tue, 20 Aug 2019 07:37:26 -0400 Message-ID: <871rxggj9l.fsf@gmail.com> References: <87o90mm4x2.fsf@ericabrahamsen.net> <87blwmuh6j.fsf@dick.i-did-not-set--mail-host-address--so-tickle-me> <87mug6klq3.fsf@ericabrahamsen.net> <87mug5bpuh.fsf@ucl.ac.uk> <87y2zojwbz.fsf@ericabrahamsen.net> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain Injection-Info: blaine.gmane.org; posting-host="blaine.gmane.org:195.159.176.226"; logging-data="183804"; mail-complaints-to="usenet@blaine.gmane.org" User-Agent: Gnus/5.13 (Gnus v5.13) Emacs/25.1 (gnu/linux) To: ding@gnus.org Original-X-From: ding-owner+M36941@lists.math.uh.edu Tue Aug 20 13:38:17 2019 Return-path: Envelope-to: ding-account@gmane.org Original-Received: from lists1.math.uh.edu ([129.7.128.208]) by blaine.gmane.org with esmtps (TLS1.2:ECDHE_RSA_AES_256_GCM_SHA384:256) (Exim 4.89) (envelope-from ) id 1i02Su-000lgM-3e for ding-account@gmane.org; Tue, 20 Aug 2019 13:38:16 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1] helo=lists.math.uh.edu) by lists1.math.uh.edu with smtp (Exim 4.92) (envelope-from ) id 1i02SZ-0005GQ-Id; Tue, 20 Aug 2019 06:37:55 -0500 Original-Received: from mx1.math.uh.edu ([129.7.128.32]) by lists1.math.uh.edu with esmtps (TLSv1.3:TLS_AES_256_GCM_SHA384:256) (Exim 4.92) (envelope-from ) id 1i02ST-0005DW-EH for ding@lists.math.uh.edu; Tue, 20 Aug 2019 06:37:49 -0500 Original-Received: from quimby.gnus.org ([80.91.231.51]) by mx1.math.uh.edu with esmtps (TLSv1.2:ECDHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384:256) (Exim 4.92) (envelope-from ) id 1i02SS-0008LO-8Q for ding@lists.math.uh.edu; Tue, 20 Aug 2019 06:37:49 -0500 Original-Received: from 195-159-176-226.customer.powertech.no ([195.159.176.226] helo=blaine.gmane.org) by quimby.gnus.org with esmtps (TLS1.2:ECDHE_RSA_AES_256_GCM_SHA384:256) (Exim 4.89) (envelope-from ) id 1i02SP-0008Qf-1l for ding@gnus.org; Tue, 20 Aug 2019 13:37:47 +0200 Original-Received: from list by blaine.gmane.org with local (Exim 4.89) (envelope-from ) id 1i02SN-000l9Q-46 for ding@gnus.org; Tue, 20 Aug 2019 13:37:43 +0200 X-Injected-Via-Gmane: http://gmane.org/ Cancel-Lock: sha1:gjEdv3N1Lc3yvceUrjdBjH0DK24= List-ID: Precedence: bulk Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.gnus.general:88737 Archived-At: "Lipstick on a pig" comes to mind when I think of patching documentation. If a system is sufficiently baroque that it's difficult to write concise documentation, then the battle was already lost (the shining counterpoint is K&R in which Kernighan famously writes "C is not a big language and ... is not well served by a big book"). Certainly Gnus's intro documentation is (much) longer than it needs to be. Coders who also write documentation have an overriding tendency to explicate all that they know rather than condense to what the user cares to know (which is "how can i get on with my life?"). I believe Gnus can be made less user-hostile so that lengthy and "jocular" documentation is unnecessary -- most Gmail and Thunderbird users never have to read consult docs. I've been working steadily to write a "spacemacs for Gnus" (even though I dislike spacemacs).