Re: manual & NBW

[Mark Szuchman <szuchman>]

Robert is right.  The advantage to keeping the command-line driven
interface, along with the mostly same command lettering, means that
continued consultation with the NBD manual will prove useful for NBW.
The cost of manuals is considerable:  publishing is one of the
activities that in the last decade has resisted significant cost-cuts.
Indeed, the costs of paper and binding have either remained stubbornly
the same or have risen in the recent past.  If cost-saving measures,
such as manual-less programs, have been embraced by the Microsoft's of
the industry, imagine the choices that smaller outfits must face.
One might argue that a manual's cost would be passed on to the
unknowing consumer anyway, but once the trend for manual-lessness
(how's THAT for "constructed text") has been established, competitive
issues impose pricing limits industrywide.  As it is, NBW is a suite of
applications which presents the need for competitive suite pricing.
And publishing manuals with a view to sell them separately is most
likely to be a money-losing proposition.

On Wed, 30 Dec 1998 11:12:50 -0500 (EST), Nota Bene List wrote:
>Much or most of the content in the Nota Bene v. 4 manuals should apply to
>the Windows version, don't you think? I've been using XyWrite for the past
>couple of years, and the manuals for the DOS version and the Win version
>are much the same for much of the way. Changes in the keyboard, yes, and
>features added, a few features dropped perhaps--but your marginal notes in
>the manual can adapt the DOS manual for Windows?
>
>A loss, and awkward, but not devastating? SMARTDOC will help a good deal.
>
>Regards,
>RH