The FAQ

In the two years that I've been playing with this group the most frequently asked question by far has been "Where's the FAQ". The most frequent answer to that question has always been, and is still - there is none. There is a welcome letter that Walt Hultgren sends out to you when you first sign into the list server which tells you where things are archived and how to do routine things - but there is no FAQ. I will now attempt to argue the case against one. 1 - There are no frequently asked questions. Yes the same questions comes up sometimes two or three times a year - but that is hardly frequent. (Not fair - the age old, "My Online engine has crashed and just says "recovering" when I start it back up what can I do" does get asked at least every other month. So I'll give an answer to that one - a) reinit and restore from archive or b) call Informix support, have them dial into your box and wave their magic wand (TBZERO) over your engine to resuscitate it.) 2 - The real FAQ is called The Fine Manual. Most of the 'frequently asked questions' can be easily answered by spending 347 hours poring over that tome. Or by figuring out the indexing strategy. By creating an FAQ - which duplicates most of the information in TFM we would be creating more text for you to read - and it will not be indexed nearly half as well as TFM. 3 - Most of the questions asked of this group are esoteric or unique - trying to codify them would be an impossible task - if you want pore through the archives - the answers are still there. 4 - If you are in need of an FAQ - then what you really need is a published work which is geared to your needs - whatever they may be. Therefore you should state your needs and ask for a book. There are a couple of new ones coming out this September (according to Joe Lumbley's .sig and if Cathy Kipp ever gets done with hers) that should handle these needs quite nicely. So - I would suggest that instead of an FAQ we maintain a list of books along with a review of each one - this list would then provide to each FAQ_wanna_have the source material they crave. This is a possible task. I will follow this list with a list of books I know of. If you want to add to that list or make comments (I don't read) on them or offer to review them go right ahead and send me such and I will put it all together. Otherwise - if you have a question just ask - there are no stupid questions - you won't get flames saying READ THE FAQ - you probably won't get flames at all since such are rarely seen around here (recent discussion of Informix Support a rare exception to this rule). Everyone who is capable of responding to a question does. To wit - I asked a question two days ago that I should have known the answer to, but my brain was turned off or something. I got at least 2,038 nice replies telling me to check permissions. Ta for now j. _____________________________________________________________________________ Jack Parker | Hewlett Packard, BSMC Boise, Idaho, USA| "They call her aunt only when jparker@hpbs3645.boi.hp.com | her cucumbers are ripe." (208) 396-5388 (W) (208) 384-1623 (H) | - Burmese folk wisdom _____________________________________________________________________________ Any opinions expressed herein are my own and not those of my employers. _____________________________________________________________________________