[texhax] making flow chart with latex

Alan Litchfield alan at alphabyte.co.nz
Sun Nov 13 20:38:20 CET 2005


Sorry to drag this out folks, but Reinhard it right in what he says, as are
pretty much all the others.

I have been looking at where the postings have come from and it seems part of
the issue is one of language use. English is a difficult medium and written
language poses special problems for communication. I try to moderate my
written language because I can soften what my words say when face to face with
gestures, intonation and expression.

Some years ago, on this list, I was told to RTFM after asking one of those
stupid questions. I mentioned that I had already read the manual, but still
had questions because there were some parts I did not understand. I suggested
the answerer should not be so abusive as well since I was asking a reasonable
question. He was surprised I should say that and said he was only making a
suggestion with that phrase. I had to point out that RTM is a suggestion, RTFM
is being abusive. English was not his first language.

I see similar parallels in this situation, and it is one where sometimes the
people who need educating are those who are communicating answers. The
ignorant are because they do not know. The responsibility is upon those who
do.

Cheers
Alan

--
Alan T Litchfield, MNZCS
School of Computer and Information Science
AUT University
http://www.aut.ac.nz/cis/
Ph +649 921 9999 x5217





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