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> I don't want to have to read a 391 page manual first

Actually, I have no problem reading the 391 page manual first because I've learned, the hard way, that that's the best (only) way to make sure you're not overlooking something - it's my boss who has a problem with it. Thy fingers shalt be on thy keyboard at all times and thou shalt be closing Jira tickets as fast as possible.




In an ideal setting, would you actually go through the whole thing before programming?


Well, I guess that depends on what you mean by an ideal setting: in an _ideal_ setting, everything would be so intuitive that there'd be no need to read any documentation at all; you'd just have a goal, and you'd sit down and immediately start working toward that goal. You could consult an all-knowing "oracle" if you had a specific question that you needed the answer to and that all-knowing oracle would always provide a correct and specific answer. I don't know if this is actually achievable, but I do think most software tasks are estimated under the assumption that it's not only achievable but the present state of things. If the manual exists, though, then whoever wrote it thought it was important to present topics in a specific order rather than just organizing it in an "if you need this result, then do this" FAQ form.




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