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Amiga computer related discussion => General chat about Amiga topics => Topic started by: barney on October 26, 2012, 02:38:48 AM

Title: Why are All AMIGA Manuals so damn boring?
Post by: barney on October 26, 2012, 02:38:48 AM
I never understood why Amiga Manuals are so damn boring.  I have tried and tried to read them but I literally hate them....I stinkin hate them.  A few pages into it and I close the book.  In fact, I hate them so much I end up giving them away.

Oh well.  I do love the Amiga though.

Barney
Title: Re: Why are All AMIGA Manuals so damn boring?
Post by: commodorejohn on October 26, 2012, 03:09:36 AM
Which manuals are we talking about?
Title: Re: Why are All AMIGA Manuals so damn boring?
Post by: barney on October 26, 2012, 03:20:00 AM
Quote from: commodorejohn;712643
Which manuals are we talking about?


Workbench manuals, Amiga Dos Manuals, etc.  In fact, I have about 20+ manuals that I don't know what to do with.  Everytime I buy an Amiga on Craigslist, it comes with several manuals.  If anybody is interrested, I'll give them away.  Just pay the shipping (media rate) and and $5 for gas.
Title: Re: Why are All AMIGA Manuals so damn boring?
Post by: CritAnime on October 26, 2012, 04:03:33 AM
Manuals for stuff like that aren't supposed to be stimulating. They are just reference materials. So been straight to the point and boring is the aim lol. I remember some manuals for Cisco stuff we were working with at college. It was so blunt it beat your brain into mush. However it go to the point and allowed us to identify problems.
Title: Re: Why are All AMIGA Manuals so damn boring?
Post by: Matt_H on October 26, 2012, 04:15:09 AM
I love Amiga manuals. I find that they're a rich technical resource and an important historical record of our platform. I always learn something new from them.

Then again, maybe you've just been unlucky and ended up with the dull ones. :) What have you got?
Title: Re: Why are All AMIGA Manuals so damn boring?
Post by: barney on October 26, 2012, 04:39:57 AM
Off hand I can't remember the names, but I'll take a look and post it itomorrow.  Talk to you later.
Title: Re: Why are All AMIGA Manuals so damn boring?
Post by: commodorejohn on October 26, 2012, 04:53:43 AM
I've never paid any attention to the users' manuals except to check the AmigaDOS command reference when I can't remember something. The ROM Kernel Reference Manual series, on the other hand, is easily the best system documentation I've encountered.
Title: Re: Why are All AMIGA Manuals so damn boring?
Post by: bbond007 on October 26, 2012, 05:20:54 AM
Quote from: barney;712640
I never understood why Amiga Manuals are so damn boring.  I have tried and tried to read them but I literally hate them....I stinkin hate them.  A few pages into it and I close the book.  In fact, I hate them so much I end up giving them away.

Oh well.  I do love the Amiga though.

Barney


you need to read the more technical manuals, then you'll find less boring stuff like:

"GURU 80000003 not enough beer"
Title: Re: Why are All AMIGA Manuals so damn boring?
Post by: MelbourneBen on October 26, 2012, 05:40:41 AM
I like the Commodore Amiga user manuals and alot of the third party stuff is good aswell, but then I like reading technical stuff.
Title: Re: Why are All AMIGA Manuals so damn boring?
Post by: som99 on October 26, 2012, 12:39:24 PM
PM me a what manuals you got and ill buy a few from you for shipping + 5$ :)
If you want to read a good book and learn something at the same time try reading "Mastering Amiga AMOS" by Phil South, the revised book is better then the original one :)
Title: Re: Why are All AMIGA Manuals so damn boring?
Post by: gertsy on October 26, 2012, 01:30:52 PM
They are non-fiction you know.
Title: Re: Why are All AMIGA Manuals so damn boring?
Post by: JimS on October 26, 2012, 02:41:25 PM
Quote from: barney;712640
I never understood why Amiga Manuals are so damn boring.

Barney


It's not just Amiga.... unless your name is Montgomery Scott, *all* technical manuals are boring.
Title: Re: Why are All AMIGA Manuals so damn boring?
Post by: smerf on October 26, 2012, 04:53:01 PM
Hi,

@Barney,

If you think they are boring, pick up a microsoft manuel, oh thats right they don't come with a manuel, you have to go to college for 3 months to become microsoft certified, but only after you take their A+ course so you know how the hardware works and how bad they botched up the interrupt system.

Come to think about it, Commodore really excelled in their manuals.

smerf
Title: Re: Why are All AMIGA Manuals so damn boring?
Post by: smerf on October 26, 2012, 04:54:44 PM
Hi,

@gertsy,

You haven't looked at a microsoft windows 7 or 8 manual yet have you.

Fictional is the best term to use for it.

smerf
Title: Re: Why are All AMIGA Manuals so damn boring?
Post by: jorkany on October 26, 2012, 05:36:06 PM
Reminds me of when a colleague said he found "C User's Journal" to be "a bit dry".
Title: Re: Why are All AMIGA Manuals so damn boring?
Post by: Zac67 on October 26, 2012, 06:09:46 PM
You're reading the wrong ones - various passages in the Reference Manuals are hilarious! We could quote them here but finding them is a major part of the fun. ;D
Title: Re: Why are All AMIGA Manuals so damn boring?
Post by: Oldsmobile_Mike on October 26, 2012, 06:32:17 PM
Be glad you got manuals with them, most things you buy these days, you're lucky if you get a folded sheet of instructions and a disc with a PDF!

I still remember the manual for AmigaVision, in it's beautiful 3-ring binder that you could lay flat to read.  As I recall the A3000 came with a nice manual, as well.  Ah, the good old days!
Title: Re: Why are All AMIGA Manuals so damn boring?
Post by: CritAnime on October 27, 2012, 04:26:00 AM
Quote from: Oldsmobile_Mike;712718
Be glad you got manuals with them, most things you buy these days, you're lucky if you get a folded sheet of instructions and a disc with a PDF!
 
I still remember the manual for AmigaVision, in it's beautiful 3-ring binder that you could lay flat to read. As I recall the A3000 came with a nice manual, as well. Ah, the good old days!

Yup I agree. My latest pc motherboard came with a 5 page quickstart and then the manual was on a PDF on the driver disk. So unless you had another computer, which thankfully I did, you were stuffed if any problems popped up.
 
I do miss manuals that had useful information, detailed tips with pictures and proper technical specs.
Title: Re: Why are All AMIGA Manuals so damn boring?
Post by: kedawa on October 27, 2012, 10:54:42 PM
My A500 manual actually taught me a lot, and the appendices are invaluable when tinkering with the hardware.  The workbench stuff is pretty unremarkable, though.
Title: Re: Why are All AMIGA Manuals so damn boring?
Post by: aMIGA_dUDE on October 28, 2012, 12:24:43 AM
Genesis is have no manual, you had to set up CDTV before you could watch how to set up CDTV.
As it was on CD-Rom in those days nobody had CD-Rom drives! Even if did I think video was in CDXL file, so only Amiga was able to play it.
PS It wasn't that hard set up CDTV but... just saying!