How to RTFM

[Epictetus]

A friend of mine emailed this to me today, not sure how many tech people we have here, but it's good for a laugh every once in awhile:

One day a Novice came to the Master.
"Master," he said, "How is it that I may become a Writer of Programs?"
the Master looked solemly at the Novice.
"Have you in your possession a Compiler of Source Code?" the Master asked.
"No," replied the Novice.
the Master sent the Novice on a quest to the Store of Software.

Many hours later the Novice returned.
"Master," he said, "How is it that I may become a Writer of Programs?"
the Master looked solemly at the Novice.
"Have you in your possession a Compiler of Source Code?" the Master asked.
"Yes," replied the Novice.
the Master frowned at the Novice.
"You have a Compiler of Source. What now can prevent you from becoming
a Writer of Programs?"
the Novice fidgeted nervously and presented his Compiler of Source to
the Master.
"How is this used?" asked the Novice.
"Have you in your possession a Manual of Operation?" the Master asked.
"No," replied the Novice.
the Master instructed the Novice as to where he could find the
Manual of Operation.

Many days later the Novice returned.
"Master," he said, "How is it that I may become a Writer of Programs?"
the Master looked solemly at the Novice.
"Have you in your possession a Compiler of Source Code?" the Master asked.
"Yes," replied the Novice.
"Have you in your possession a Manual of Operation?" the Master asked.
"Yes," replied the Novice.
the Master frowned at the Novice.
"You have a Compiler of Source, and a Manual of Operation. What now can
prevent you from becomming a Writer of Programs?"

At this the Novice fidgeted nervously and presented his Manual of Operations to
the Master.
"How is this used?" asked the Novice.
the Master closed his eyes, and heaved a great sigh.
the Master sent the Novice on a quest to the School of Elementary.

Many years later the Novice returned.
"Master," he said, "How is it that I may become a Writer of Programs?"
the Master looked solemly at the Novice.
"Have you in your possession a Compiler of Source Code, a Manual of Operation
and an Education of Elementary?" the Master asked.
"Yes," replied the Novice.
the Master frowned at the Novice.
"What then can prevent you from becomming a Writer of Programs?"

the Novice fidgeted nervously. He looked around but could find nothing to
present to the Master.
the Master smiled at the Novice.
"I see what problem plagues you." said the Master.
"Oh great master, please tell me." asked the Novice.

the Master turned the Novice toward the door, and with a supportive hand on his
shoulder said, "Go young Novice, and Read The F*cking Manual."

And so the Novice became enlightened.

[Zelda]

Oh dear....I know people like that!!! Thanks for the laugh Epictetus.

[Black Jeebus]

I swear to god that was my programming teacher in high school. Except more often than not he foisted the slow-learners off on those of us who had read the manual...

His main method of teaching us was to give us the commands we "might" need (ie a lot of extra commands just to make us try to fit them in whatever program so he could yell at us for trying to be too complex- K.I.S.S.) and send us off to the help files. Should the help files proove useless he would download and print new ones for us.

[mifencer]

Back in my day... pc's was so new that usually the students knew as much / more than the teachers.

(a thread detour)
remember Logo? Basic (where you have to put the line numbers in)? or Pascal?

I swear to god that was my programming teacher in high school. Except more often than not he foisted the slow-learners off on those of us who had read the manual...

His main method of teaching us was to give us the commands we "might" need (ie a lot of extra commands just to make us try to fit them in whatever program so he could yell at us for trying to be too complex- K.I.S.S.) and send us off to the help files. Should the help files proove useless he would download and print new ones for us.

[MikeHarm]

I used all of them. I also have memories of getting Compute Gazette magazine for the commodore 64 and inputting the machine code in line by line to get new games.

[Zelda]

remember Logo? Basic (where you have to put the line numbers in)? or Pascal?

Logo - Grade school, my first intro to programming (keep in mind I have ahd a computer, and never a C64 since I was six)
Basic - Upper grade school - taught myself from a magazine
Pascal - Senior School - Infomation Processing Technology we used Turbo Pascal for all our programming....that was fun, along with SQL....sigh the memories....Acess just isnt as fun as an SQL command line!

[Black Jeebus]

Man I didn't learn to program till '99 and we used like Borland's Turbo Pascal 3 to do it.

Then there was my Robotics class senior year, using Basic (and yes you had to put the line number in). That sucked...

[mifencer]

How about the Vic 20? Better yet, the PET computer? Those tape drive kick butt! Anyone use a Kaypro? The first 'mobile' computer I've seen.

I used all of them. I also have memories of getting Compute Gazette magazine for the commodore 64 and inputting the machine code in line by line to get new games.

[Mergs]

FORTRAN IV and 80 column punch cards. AND the sliderule to calculator transition. Which is why I stayed a Mechanical/materials engineer!

[Soldier]

...I spent my time in between my first computer classes (a lot of free time, since I was usually done with the assignment five minutes into the lecture to explain how to do it) playing Shockwave games online...

Something Fishy rules.

[jeff]

I'm almost exactly the same age as Mergs and started with the same exalted technology base - except I liked it and switched from chemistry to Computer Science (for one thing, you're exposed to fewer poisonous reagants). Things sure have changed....

BTW, Mergs - a sincere "welcome back"!

[latenight]

I remember loading "programs" of a standard cassette deck on a ti994a.

Loved "hearing" them load

[Mergs]

BTW, Mergs - a sincere "welcome back"!

Thanks, Jeff. It is good to be back in the land of round doorknobs and the big PX! And fencing foil again.

[VorpalCat]

I remember loading "programs" of a standard cassette deck on a ti994a.

Loved "hearing" them load

YES!! That was our first family computer. I remember keying games from a magazine -- learned how to debug in a hurry! (Well, spot typos. )

BTW, I actually yelled, 'Hey ref!! RTFM!!' at a hockey game Wednesday night when he called icing on a short-handed team. I'm such a nerd.