New Article: Why I Love Manuals
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#+TITLE: Article List
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- [[file:why-i-love-manuals.org][Why I Love: Manuals]]
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- [[file:why-i-love-whiteboards.org][Why I Love: Whiteboards]]
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- [[file:realizing-you-need-to-start-over.org][Realizing You Need To Start Over]]
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- [[file:for-want-of-a-more-limited-computer.org][For Want Of A More Limited Computer]]
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#+TITLE: Why I Love: Manuals
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#+DATE: <2024-02-23 Fri>
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#+DESCRIPTION: Manuals. They tell you things.
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I love manuals. I absolutely love them. I've been fascinated with them for as
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long as I can remember, although that's not very far. The question becomes, of
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course, why do I love them?
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* Part One: Those Darn Video Games
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My obsession with the paper tomes started with video game manuals. I have vivid
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memories of sitting in the back of the car with a brand new game, likely gotten
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for my birthday, and just poring over the manual again and again and again,
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eagerly seeking out tidbits of lore, mechanics, hints, artwork, diagrams. Most
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often these were Nintendo DS or Wii manuals. I'd often have read them a hundred
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times before I even got out of the car to get to play it.
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There's something special to me about those manuals. Big titles for these
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consoles often had big manuals, often with custom artwork, theming based around
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the game, and hints and tricks spread throughout. Smaller titles were often a
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much more utilitarian affair, simple black and white text arranged neatly on the
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thin paper.
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I loved being able to digest the information in such a simple way. It was
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relaxing, simply letting myself absorb information, and on rare occasions,
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actually checking them in order to find a button combination or a helpful map.
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I used to just read them for fun. I even took some to school, to read when I had
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sped through yet another page of simple sums. It was a fun comforting item for
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me to read.
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But that was just the beginning of my manual craze.
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* Part Two: Manuals Of Actual Consequence
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I was sitting in my Dad's Ford Transit van, bored to tears, when I started
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rummaging through the glove compartment. I then found the manual, and suddenly,
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I had something to read. I can't remember off the top of my head which year it
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was for, but I started flipping through. Pages of procedures for checking
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various things, how to operate the radio system, features of add-ons and
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variants that weren't on the van. In that moment, something clicked in my head
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that manuals were *real* sources of information.
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I then started reading pretty much any physical manual that came across my
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path. I've learned, in theory, but mostly forgotten, how to operate many pieces
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of machinery that I shall never see nor interact with, and that thought is
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simply very funny to me. I know how to open 180 degree doors on certain Transit
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Vans, for no reason at all, whatsoever.
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But I actually learned helpful things, too. Things like reading a copy of the
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"Rules of the Road" actually had some things stick around in my head, and
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managed to make passing my own theory test easier, although I did have to revise
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just a little bit as you can imagine.
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But I simply adore having a comprehensive, well written and illustrated manual
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to read. They are so unbelievably helpful that it still boggles the mind to me
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that "RTFM" is a common cry on forums, chats, and frustrated tech support calls
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everywhere? Why wouldn't you want to *read* a manual?
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Oh, yeah, because you're a sane human being who doesn't see a large table
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listing specifications, and think "Lovely!"
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I know there's some of you out there that agree.
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* Part Three: Damn, Did I Miss The Good Part AGAIN?
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Unfortunately, I often look at scans and and pictures of older manuals. And holy
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hell, do they seem a lot more detailed, a lot more interesting to read! Frankly,
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they needed to be for anyone to get good information on a given thing. The
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lessened access to the gigantic source of all human knowledge and then 80
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percent entirely useless lowest-common-denominator faff.
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The advent of the Internet, and search engines, have somewhat lessened the need
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to put *everything* into a manual. Often times, you can buy a new gizmo or gadget
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and get a paper slip "Quick Start Guide", which simply tells you "plug it in,
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4head", and an impostor booklet that contains only the billion lines of legalese
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that tell you not to throw it in the rubbish bin and that you don't actually own
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the product you just paid for.
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Oh, and getting a big old spiral bound manual with your 8-bit home computer
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sounds simply lovely, and I want that, please, thank you very much. If it's
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going to sit on my desk, why *shouldn't* it be spiral bound?
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Did I miss this just like the Web 1.0?
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* Part Four: Digital Manuals, Or How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love Texinfo.
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But the manual *lives* on. Sure, they take slightly different forms, these
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days. Sometimes, it's a wiki, or knowledge base, which is kept up to date
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rigorously and contains the same tips, tricks, and arcane knowledge I love.
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Other times it's three lines that are inaccurate at best. At least they're quick
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to read and dismiss, while you promptly find someone who knows what they're
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doing, and then make them your defacto manual.
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I think my favourite example comes from my favorite Lisp Interpeter/Web
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Browser/Chessboard/Snake Game/Text-Based Adventure/Text Editor, GNU Emacs. The
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built in manual is extensive, and just *chock* full of interesting tidbits. You
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can learn Emacs in one day. Everyday. But it's got a manual to match that, and
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docstrings galore to boot. With *three keypresses* you gain access to an *index* of
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different manuals.
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You certainly need it for a program that's been evolving since 1985. Emacs even
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comes with two manuals for the built in language, Emacs Lisp, one a reference,
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the other an introduction for non-programmers to that language!
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There's also the UNIX tradition of the good old man page. Quick, simple, and of
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course... accessible through Emacs. What, you expect me to *leave* Emacs? But more
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seriously, they can be a real mixed bag. Some are just detailed enough to get to
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know the program, others are small, and out-of-date. They are something to
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scratch that itch, either way.
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Not to mention the myriad of other software, hardware, and equipment that have
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massive digital manuals. While it's disappointing that I might not get something
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to hold in my hands, the replacement isn't too bad, and searching is a *godsend*
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for pulling the information you need. There's benefits to both, really.
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So I think there's plenty of high quality manuals left for me to read and
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refrence. And plenty more that have three sentences of poorly translated English
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that leave mep trudging to Stack Exchange to desperately find someone who
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hopefully had the same problem.
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And if you're not an Emacs user, and are complaining that GCC or some other
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program doesn't have documentation, do yourself a favour, and type:
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/"info"/
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This one may have happened in an IRC channel.
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Too long, didn't read? *Read the fuc-*
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