i could be reading some fucking manuals right now instead of lemmy...
this post was submitted on 19 Aug 2025
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mankier saved my ass more times than i'm willing to admit on Barebones distros that came with no man. Especially with the command examples
Not everyone learns the same way. I've mostly found man pages to be pretty opaque. Finding examples online that are relevant to my specific use case have been much more useful to me.
Imagine reading manuals lmao
Part of it is cultural and habit and that is something you can just decide to change. It helps if someone brings it up, like this post, or you might not even think of it.
I bought a $10 power strip / surge protector last week. It was the first time this occurred to me. I pulled out the manual to throw it away, and it was only my experience in writing technical documentation that made me stop and consider actually reading/skimming it.
Maybe I'll change this habit. Maybe I'll start reading these things.
Of course some of them aren't meant to be read. But you can usually tell pretty quickly,
Yeah sure, unless the manual reads like a white paper from the 80s... Ya know like every man page ever
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I know about man and man man, but why is there no man man man?
The issues come up when I read the manuals and they do not explain anything to a person who doesn't already know most things.
Linux fails in too many places at having instructions written by people who care even slightly whether humans will ever be able to comprehend them.
I still have manuals for appliances I no longer have.
WTFM is job one. Honestly WTFMs and RTFMs should just be a requirement to any computer science degree.
CS101: RTFM - Someone has already helped you.
CS102: WTFM - You also need to help others.
CS103: FTFM - What to do when help isn't provided.
CS104: GDFL - What to do when there is no more help.
Edit: Other courses I teach include
CS201: WTFPM - Code Quality
CS202: UTC - The only time that makes sense
CS203: 1 - Counting for machines
Technical writing was a required class in my CS program. Is that not the norm?
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Username checks out, RTFM makes most people psychotic. Not me though I love the funny words and the voices they speak to me with.
When my friends talk about what books they're reading and it comes back to me I just joke and say "oh I largely read non-fiction".
I read every manual, decision tree, process document, whatever lands in front of me.
RTFM is life