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Subject:RE: History of TW before the PC and the Internet From:Marilynne Smith <marilyns -at- qualcomm -dot- com> To:"Harry Bacheler" <hbacheler -at- geo -dot- census -dot- gov>, "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Mon, 14 Feb 2000 13:56:38 -0800
I will jump in here and say that when I started working in the computer area,
they gave me a prototype terminal to work on. That is, I was using the thing I
was writing about. I learned things about it no one else knew. I often sat
talking to the programmers about problems I was having with it. I saw the
newer prototypes out on the table being created. I proofed pins for
breadboarding. I was the test subject for character generation. I was also
the test subject for the prototype I worked with. Sometimes I would use 3 or 4
keyboards in a day while they searched for the one that worked best.
It was a great environment for a tech writer. I'm glad I was there.
At 06:30 AM 2/11/00 , Harry Bacheler wrote:
>Wow, what a question to ask...
>
>1) Technical writers have always been around.
>
>It is just that the work to be done was almost always 'just part of the
>job'. The ability of the PC environment to
>bring the "publishing of documents" to the individual desktop has helped to
>enable
>the Technical Writer career area to grow.
>
