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At 05:49 AM 03/16/2000 -0800, Chris Hamilton wrote:
>....If you hand a good programmer a well-written user
>guide [written by a competitor company],he can
>probably use it to create a system which would
>otherwise have taken years to put together.
>>Depending on the product, my assumption is that you
>>shouldn't innundate the reader with details about the
>>internals, except on a need-to-know basis.
I'm not talking about inundating the reader with details. IMHO, a really
well-written user guide will walk the user through every aspect he'll need
to know to properly use the system -- thus enabling stark novices to
effortlessly achieve success, as well as those struggling at 2 AM, in a
distant hotel room, or on Sunday afternoon (i.e., when no one is available
to help).
The bad news is that seeing this type of guide will tell other programmers/
developers how to create and design comparable systems without spending
umpteen hours learning the nature of the business.
"Scottie"
(The Scottish Terrier Lover)
