Re: Programming / scripting languages in tech-writing

[John Cornellier <tw -at- cornellier -dot- com>]

Ed Gregory <edgregory -at- comcast -dot- net> wrote:

>The need is not for you to be a programmer

Yes, but I'd add that being able to _do_ something is a prerequisite to writing about it. Not that you have to earn your living from programming, but you should 
at least be able to do some enhancements to "Hello World!".

> but rather for you to be able to document the
> code written by the programmers who would otherwise
> document their code poorly, if at all.

<stepping into the realm of gross generalisation> Dunno about "documenting" code, but good programmers _comment_ their code well, poor programmers comment 
poorly if at all.

Experienced programmers know that most coding time is spent maintaining old code, rather than writing new code. Good comments in the code are essential. 
Anything else is bad practice.

John Cornellier




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