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Hi, Bill...in many situations, you are correct. However,
keep in mind that there are all types of tech writing
assignments. Take my previous one. I documented two major
back-office systems behind the web...stored procedures,
processes, COM+s, databases, XML schemas, triggers, EAI
components, etc.
Things were ALWAYS changing...a database table is added or a
row is added to an existing table, a server IP is changed,
an upgrade to a stored proc trigger is deployed, a modified
XML schema is released. There is no deployed
application...there are 100 deployed applications. Every
day, something is deployed. It may be a X.0 release, it may
be a 0.X release, it may be a, 0.0.X release to any number
of softwares, modules, applications, tools, DBs, COMs, VB
scripts, etc. Tell me...how do you even approach a freeze, a
snapshot, or even a delta? You simply evolve the documents
as the environment evolves.
John Posada
Senior Technical Writer
writer[at]tdandw.com
> I have to disagree with John... Although "ship" is a bad
choice of term, you
> still need to freeze a snapshot in time in order to deploy
the application.
> If you don't, you have a nightmare of a system to
maintain, or else
> something that you always develop but never use (in which
case, what's the
> point?).