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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:Wed, 15 Mar 2000 20:55:16 -0500
At 02:22 PM 03/15/2000 -0600, Harry Hager wrote:
>...I've worked with technical writers who were quite
>comfortable and competent when writing about the most
>detailed of programming languages or the internals of
>operating systems. Admittedly, these people may be few
>and far between, but they certainly are out there. You
>just have to watch out for the imposters ...
Agreed. My point was that it requires very special skills to be able to
write "about the most detailed of programming languages or the internals of
operating systems" -- and, if doing so without detailed knowledge of those
languages/systems, one must have beta testers or other means of confirming
accuracy.
Without question, SOME tech writers can do a brilliant job at this.
Unfortunately, however, there are a host of others who are solely out to
make a buck, and thus publish fat, very expensive books without bothering
to see whether or not the code will even work (and, very often, it
doesn't), never mind if it is remotely efficient. THEY'RE the ones we've
got to watch out for.
"Scottie"
(The Scottish Terrier Lover)
