On Wed,  15 Feb  1995 18:55:00 EST  "s.merchant" <[log in to unmask]>
said:
 
>I do hope, BTW, that L-Soft's  current efforts in creating a manual will
>be to  create a _real_ one.  (It is rather surprising  that a commercial
>product does not have one,  and a rather time-consuming process--both on
>the parts  of requesters and the  kind respondents on this  list--to get
>answers to simple questions.
 
The explanation  is simple. LISTSERV  started as  a free product  with no
manual (or rather, with the random  assortment you mentioned). To write a
manual you  need to  make a  certain number of  technical writers  work a
certain  amount of  time.  Technical  writers that  have  never heard  of
LISTSERV are  not usable because  they end  up being editors  for manuals
written by  programmers who aren't  efficient at  that kind of  work, and
technical writers who  do know LISTSERV are rare. We  didn't have the $$$
to fund this  process until last summer, because we  had to buy machines,
furniture, etc.  We didn't find  a usable  writer until September  and he
couldn't begin  to work  for us  until December. It's  going to  take 3-6
months  to develop  a  good  manual and  unless  we  can find  additional
qualified writers, I don't see any way to speed this up unfortunately.
 
  Eric