Hallo john!

 jf> and im guilty of just finding the answer and using it rather than
 jf> finding and understanding the answer and using it.

I understand you now.  I suffer from that particular malady. so I cnnot
honestly be too critical of others.  However I don't author or publish such
material and as a consumer I find it easier to be critical especially after
shelling out the big bucks for very expensive and hard to find technical books
on whatever subject, never published by orielly by the way.  The perl manual I
had was authored by Larry Wall who was the father of perl if I am not mistaken.
 It was a long time ago and I am getting older and stupider with time.  :-/

Bottomline is that I can relate to what you're saying.

Speaking of manpages, I did author a few way back in the very early 1990's for
some inhouse programs running on Solaris.  I was complimented for them but not
so much for my communication skills but rather for my formatting talents.  As
for the progams the manpages were targetting I didn't have a clue how they
worked since I never used them.  ;-)

Strong like bull, smart like tractor.

Het leven is goed,
Maurice

... Huil niet om mij, ik heb vi.
--- GNU bash, version 5.0.11(1)-release (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu)