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Subject:RE: The Real Offense From:Scottie Lover <iluvscotties -at- mindspring -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Fri, 10 Mar 2000 11:29:23 -0500
At 08:56 AM 03/10/2000 -0600, Arlen -dot- P -dot- Walker -at- jci -dot- com wrote:
>The same, of course can be said of the buffoons who believe that any idiot
>who can write can write intelligently about a technology.
>>...It takes *both* a knowledge of the technology and an ability to write to
>>produce useful docs. One or the other is not sufficient. Either can be
>>acquired by interested parties; all too many apparently lack that interest.
Truer words were never spoken! It is unbelievably frustrating to try to
use a technical manual, only to finally realize that whomever wrote it had
no idea how the hardware/software worked or would be used. When you're
writing a programming manual, every space and word has to be very precise
-- and only someone familiar with the language can even hope to achieve that.
Yes, I know that some technical writers write manuals for a wide variety of
languages, hardware, and software. With rare exception, I work hard to
avoid buying anything they've written.
As Arlen stated, this *IS* do-able ... If you don't want to try the code
snippets, youself, try to find beta testers. Most techies would love a
chance to see the code before it is published, and will gladly sign
non-disclosure agreements.
