TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
>"John Posada" <JPosada -at- isogon -dot- com> wrote in message news:235838 -at- techwr-l -dot- -dot- -dot-
>
>>..It's why "add as many examples as you can, and when
>>you think you have enough, add more" is one mantra for
>>developer docs.
>
>Sorry.. In my opinion, these are hacks, as are technical writers who
>believe that if their documentation has 50,000 words, it's 2X better
>than one with 25,000 words.
I think we're on a different wavelength. If you're writing something and in
your research you fins something written (say, by a co-worker) that fits
very well what your'e trying to say, will you use it and tweak it if needed,
or will you decide you need to still create your own text from scratch.
The best programmers out there know that when they face a problem, it's
probably already been solved by someone else. Or something similar has. To
know that such solutions exist, to know where to look for them, and to
leverage them whenever possible, increases efficiency and productivity.
Probably only the most stubborn and arrogant of programmers would maintain
that every character in their code has to stem from their own fingers on the
keyboard. Millions of code fragments and modules of all sizes and in all
languages have already been written, tested, and optimized to solve problems
of all sizes. Using and customizing them means you're a hack?
--
--
Chuck Martin
User Assistance & Experience Engineer
twriter "at" sonic "dot" net www.writeforyou.com
"I see in your eyes the same fear that would take the heart of me. The day
may come when the courage of Men fail, when we forsake our friends and
break all bonds of fellowship. But it is not this day! This day, we fight!"
- Aragorn
"All you have to decide is what to do with the time that is given you."
- Gandalf
Have you tried the latest in Help Authoring from RoboHelp?
Try ROBOHELP X5 for Free - Now with Word 2003 support, Content
Management, Multi-Author support, PDF and XML support and much more!
---
You are currently subscribed to techwr-l as:
archiver -at- techwr-l -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.
