So today I found myself needing to convert some plots from HPGL to something more useful, like PNG, for inclusion in a report. I turned to an old utility that I've used a bunch in the past, HP2XX, to do the conversion. Having long since lost the batch file that I used to insulate myself from its arcane argument structure, I set about learning the arguments over again. Trying to find the help file (see screen cap) caused me to think of the following:
I think the Open Source movement needs its own Clippy. It could be a sloth that looks at its shoes and mumbles while it's talking to you.
"Looks like you're using a GNUWin program, HP2XX. You don't want any documentation, do you?"
"Christ yes, I forgot what the fifteenth command line switch does."
"What program do you want documentation for?"
"Uh...HP2XX."
"What version?"
"Let's try the only one I have, 3.4.4."
"You mean you want documentation for HP2XX version 3.4.4?"
"Yes!!"
I'm just glad I didn't have to download a LaTeX viewer to read it.
