Among IBM’s many crimes, I am amazed at their ability to write hundreds of pages of useless recursive documentation. “Not familiar with this yet? Go read this other huge book first, then come back and finish this chapter.” Of course the other huge book contains lines just like this.
It’s like the old “If you don’t understand this, ask your system administrator.” cop-out. Of course, a normal user would have died hours ago, the only reason I’m still here is because I *am* the sysadmin, you dicks.
Which is really just the adult equivalent of “Because I said so” the Official Cop-Out of Parents who can’t think of a real reason for you not to do something.
Anyway, I always wonder if it’s a conspiracy to perpetuate the “charge tons of money for our softare” -> “make it too confusing to use so you have to pay for our support and consulting” -> “keep our developers & consultants employed” viscious cycle, but no one could be that sinister, could they? I mean, at some point some developer has got to be like “Wait, I have to use this crap too?? maybe I should make it easier to use.”
As opposed to the free software movement, which is:
“Make it intuitive so you won’t bug the developer who already has a real job” Maybe their real job is supporting Websphere, which pays them enough that they can write software in their spare time.
Maybe I should just shut up.
