Date: Mon, 27 Jul 1998 22:46:09 +1000 From: Sue Blake <sue@welearn.com.au> To: junkmale@xtra.co.nz Cc: freebsd-newbies@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Many assumptions are made Message-ID: <19980727224609.46579@welearn.com.au> In-Reply-To: <199807271119.XAA03911@cyclops.xtra.co.nz>; from Dan Langille on Mon, Jul 27, 1998 at 11:20:18PM %2B1200 References: <199807271119.XAA03911@cyclops.xtra.co.nz>
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On Mon, Jul 27, 1998 at 11:20:18PM +1200, Dan Langille wrote:
> Have you ever noticed how easy it is to forget what it's like to not know
> anything? I keep being reminded what it is like to be a novice.
Wow! You mean, you've already had the chance to forget for a while? :-)
> And that's a good think. As we gain knowledge, we tend to forget that
> we once did not comprehend what we now consider to be basics. And
> much of those "basics" are by no means intuitive.
>
> For example, I just downloaded nslint and tried to install it. Every
> previous port installed first time. Just enter "make install". No
> problems. But for the life of me, I can't figure out what the
> installation procedure it. There are no instructions with the port (none
> that I can find; please see my thread in the questions list).
Yes I did see that, and I'll offer a suggestion. It might be a bit hard
for people to answer that question just in terms of "how to install?"
Maybe if you gave them an account of what you had done and what came up
on the screen that you didn't expect, someone in -questions would find
it easier to zero in on the problem for you.
I usually go for packages instead of ports. I'm not sure what all the
pros and cons are, but I figure that if there's going to be any hassles
compiling or any smart decisions to be made when doing so, let someone
else work that out and I'll just have the provided binary, thanks :-)
It'd be nice to use ports all the time and exercise some of the control
that method allows, but I'm just at the stage of using Midnight
Commander to whizzy through and figure out tiny bits of what's going on
in the ports and packages. People who are more comfortable with unix
seem to use ports all the time, so there must be a strong reason to do
so that I can't appreciate right now.
> I'm finding it difficult to tell the difference between my lack of UNIX
> knowledge and the lack of full information being provided to the user.
>
> I'm sure the rest of this list must be encountering similar experiences.
Constantly. I misattribute it to one or the other, depending on mood.
--
Regards,
-*Sue*-
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