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1. Books that are delivered by a salesman should be all under one cover, so
he can't leave one behind by mistake. Salesmen are too busy to be able to
keep straight every volume of a seven-volume set. So are customers.
2. If there are multiple volumes, any reader should know instantly which
information is in which volume. If this can't be done, the division
shouldn't be made.
3. Long documents are intimidating, so the introductory material that serves
to sell the client on the product should be in a separate, shorter volume,
no more than 32 pages long. Sixteen is better.
4. Fast-changing documents like release notes shouldn't be part of more
stable documents.
5. Some documents are more likely to be written than others. When
documenting semiconductors, the statement that "We'll take this out of the
data book and turn it into an app note" is equivalent to, "We'll drop this
information on the floor and never pick it up again." This is so reliable
that it's best to suggest, "Let's write up the app note and THEN take the
material out of the data book."
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