Re: Most minimal configuration challenge

["Lawrence Velázquez" <larryv@zsh.org>]

On Wed, Aug 31, 2022, at 10:17 AM, Ray Andrews wrote:
> On 2022-08-31 02:28, Vincent Lefevre wrote:
>
>>> In short, «zstyle ':foo:bar:*:baz' key v1 v2» translates as "When
>>> library foo asks for the value of key in a situation of the form
>>> bar:*:baz, tell it the answer is «v1 v2»".
>> Perhaps there should be a zsh function that translates a zstyle line
>> to plain English. :-)
>>
> Yup.  Unfortunately we tend to think that experts are the ones who 
> should write
> documentation, but they are unqualified.  They write sentences that explain
> what they already know back to themselves.  It's like learning Coptic 
> from a book
> written in Coptic.

This is common enough, but...

> Only people who have just now learned something can
> explain it in a way that other people who want to learn it can relate to 
> because
> only the learner has the mind of a learner.

Someone who has "just now learned something" has the shallowest
possible understanding of it and can only perpetuate that shallow
understanding.  That is certainly all that is necessary in some
contexts, but it is not true education; it is sharing tips and
tricks.

The ideal educator pairs a deep knowledge of their field with an
equally deep sensitivity for the needs of their students.  It is
difficult to acquire just one of these things, let alone both, which
is why great educators are few and far between.

> Experts have the mind of 
> experts.
> So the above no doubt makes perfect sense to the expert who wrote it and 
> already
> understands it, but is useless to me.

I think this is pretty harsh toward Daniel.  I have no doubt he
could have written a more verbose and comprehensive explanation in
a paragraph or two, but I wouldn't have been surprised if you'd
objected to its wordiness.

-- 
vq