RE: Spaced out

["Steve Hudson" <steve -at- wright -dot- com -dot- au>]

When programmers think of liquid text they can only think of the word Coffee
written on the side of the jar.

When a programmer hears the word "format" as a verb, he thinks "initialise
to a virgin state" or "wipe", thus "Please format your text" sees it
obliterated.

The only tactful way to approach a programmer is with a fresh coffee and
pizza.

Attrib me if you like em :-)


Steve Hudson , HDK List MVP
Wright Technologies Pty Ltd (Aus)   EyeSpring - the future of graphics has
been created.





-----Original Message-----
From:  Alex Silbajoris



As I have been combing through some detail specification documents prepared
by developers, I'm finding many instances of an odd behavior.  I wonder if
anyone can cofirm a hunch I have.

The developers who populated these documents have the habit of using the
space bar to advance the cursor to the next line, instead of hitting a hard
return or a shift-enter combination. This puzzled me for months, but I think
I may know why this habit seems to be so ingrained.  Some of these documents
have system screen shot facimilies, composed in monospace type, and the
screen shots use spaces to position text.  Perhaps these people simply use
the same technique to compose a page of hanging-indent paragraphs made
entirely of text and spaces, without a single return character on the page.
(Of course, you can imagine what happens when the top paragraph is edited.)

Has anyone else seen this as a cultural tradition among developers?  Is
there some tactful way to tell them they're keystroking like they're unaware
the software can wrap lines?


^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Collect Royalties, Not Rejection Letters! Tell us your rejection story when you 
submit your manuscript to iUniverse Nov. 6 -Dec. 15 and get five free copies of 
your book. What are you waiting for? http://www.iuniverse.com/media/techwr

Have you looked at the new content on TECHWR-L lately?
See http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/ and check it out.

---
You are currently subscribed to techwr-l as: archive -at- raycomm -dot- com
To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-techwr-l-obscured -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com
Send administrative questions to ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com -dot-  Visit 
http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/ for more resources and info.