>> Well, you know, that's what manpages do. They give you a terse reference
>> to the bare essentials of what a tool does. That doesn't seem like much
>> of an "assumption" to me.
>
> I learned to script in bash using the manpage.  That's not exactly a
> terse one - again, hard to generalise about this kind of thing.

 From what I recall, the manpage for Bash practically lists the entire 
BNF grammar for the scripting language. Great if you're trying to 
reimplement Bash for some reason, almost useless if you want to actually 
LEARN HOW TO USE IT.

A reference manual is no substitute for an introduction.

-- 
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*

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