FreeLists / arachne / [arachne] Re: arachne Digest V2 #29

[Bob Dohse <bobdohse@xxxxxxxx>]

Arachne at FreeLists---The Arachne Fan Club!

On Thu, 29 Jan 2004 "Greg Mayman" <gmone@xxxxxxxxxx> writes:
> 
> On Sat, 24 Jan 2004 17:31:12 -0500 (EST), FreeLists Mailing List 
> Manager wrote:
>
> > Date: Sat, 24 Jan 2004 13:36:12 -0700
> > Subject: [arachne] DJPEG32.EXE Help File (???)
> > From: Bob Dohse <bobdohse@xxxxxxxx>
> 
> > Michal,
> > This is an outstanding example of an excellent response to a 
> > question.
> 
> I disagree. Since the problem was that animated graphics would
> not move for me, and I had to experiment to find that changing
<SNIP>
Greg,

I was trying to be brief, so I didn't try to split hairs. My original
response (which was never sent) was large enough to be published as a
book. 

Note that I said "AN excellent response to A question", not "THE perfect
response to GREG's question". Since I don't know what specific problem
exists on your computer/program, I am not able to claim that Michal's
response is THE answer to your question. 

However ...

For the subject material about which Michal shared, his response was
informative and comprehensive (for the subject which he was addressing,
which was quoting the help file information for a particular program).
Had that actually addressed your problem, it would have been THE perfect
answer (and, for somebody else, it IS).

I compare Michal's answer to some past examples of "just press [fill in
the name of a particular key] and it's right there - any dummy can figure
it out". My email boxes were full of that type of answer (which I
personally find unhelpful), but answers like Michal's were very rare and
become valuable parts of my private collection.

It is, in fact, possible to make a quality set of help files solely with
responses like Michal's. Eventually, enough subjects would be covered so
that the help files could be considered a comprehensive set.

I suggest that we work to encourage such efforts - rewarding such quality
answers (which are both a sacrifice of time and a willingness to be
criticized) with our thanks (and by sharing them with others who, in the
future, ask the same questions and need the same answers).

Finally, I suggest that PART of your question IS answered by Michal's
response. When you make changes in Arachne.CFG, those changes modify how
DJPEG will work. Michal's response shed light on how DJPEG interprets
those changes. Note the word "HOW". 

You are also questioning WHY Arachne (or DJPEG) doesn't animate graphics
as you expected, which is a programming question that exceeds the norm of
basic help files. While I agree that it is an interesting question for
which an answer does exist (somewhere), I disagree that answers like
Michal's should be rejected or criticized as inappropriate.

Bob


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