Reply to post: Re: Memories ...

Microsoft sysadmin hired for fake NetWare skills keeps job despite twitchy trigger finger

Saruman the White Silver badge

Re: Memories ...

I can remember in my first job we received a Dec VAXstation which was going to be used on a specific project for a customer. The thing arrived on a pallet containing a vast quantity of boxes (including one that just contained a sheet of paper saying "this box is empty" - shades of Douglas Adams), including enough manuals to fill 3 shelves of a cabinet.

About a month later the software engineer working on the project needed to know the system call to print a text message on the console. This ended up talking 4 us, and having to refer through 4 fully cross-referenced manuals before finally tracking down the system call.

Paper documentation is good, and I often still prefer it. But Dec used to take it just a tad too far in my opinion.

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