Today I found out how to run Java Applications. It's easy to do with JBindery, which comes with the MrJ SDK. Darn it, I should have read the documentation for those utilities when I first got the SDK months ago. Could have saved me a lot of trouble as I tried to get our Java app to work via AppletRunner. But now I did get it working as a standalone app and it looks good. So now I don't have to use my Windows NT workstation for anything, all my work can be done on my Macintosh. Hooray!

Which brings up another point. I used to read every manual for all the software I put on my Mac. So when I got Word 5.1 I read the 800 page manual and so forth. Nowadays I don't do that, I'll just install something and run it immediately and only read the manual if it's a complicated application or I get stuck. This means that I miss out on little features that I would have gotten from reading the manual. But it does take time to read every manual and most Mac software is rather easy to use.

I should make sure I'm familiar with every piece of software I install when I upgrade to Mac OS 9. So it'll take me a few months to fully upgrade, but I'll feel better having at least some knowledge of how everything works or is supposed to work. I've done this before, although I had much less software back then.

Now that all manuals are online, it makes it hard to just peruse a manual while you're not at your computer. But given the choice of having all manuals printed or all online, I'd go with all online. It saves a lot of paper and shipping costs and such, but also, once I've read a manual, I rarely need to look up something in it. And at that point having an online manual is helpful since I'll probably be on the road and far from a printed manual.

Both Apple and Microsoft have really good documentation. Microsoft manuals do tend to repeat the exact same thing in twenty different places, but I guess that means that you only have to go to one section to get what you want. Both companies gear their manuals to beginners, and they go over all the features of their programs. (For Apple, I'm thinking more of Claris, since they had more apps).

For advanced techniques, I suppose you could buy a third-party manual. But I never used all the features of Word or AppleWorks or whatever. For applications, I tend to use them for really basic things. And as I slowly get more experienced, I do more and more. That's a slow way of learning, sort of a "figure it out when you need to use it" sort of philosophy.

I suppose that's a little contrary to my "read all the manuals" ideal. Nah. Read all the included documentation. Advanced tech- niques you can figure out on your own, but you need to at least know all the features so you remember to use them if appropriate. That's not a contradiction to me, more of a be proficient in everything, but not necessarily an expert.

Other manuals I really liked were Digital's documentation for VMS. Unix manuals I've not been to impressed with. The ones I've seen are basically the man pages and not designed to be read as a book. But the VMS manuals were great. Clear, thorough, with lots of examples. A good 50 volumes, including the programmer's manuals, so I only read the half-dozen I needed to be a good Operator.