Re: What is More Important?

[Janice Gelb <Janice -dot- Gelb -at- Sun -dot- COM>]

Gene Kim-Eng wrote:
> I suspect that the standards most people on this list would require to
> call something "well written" are considerably higher than what the
> average user (and even some above-average users) would.  So
> "well written" as it applies to style of grammar, spelling, punctuation,
> style, etc., is a fairly rubber standard.  On the technical side, there is
> usually not so much flexibility.  Wrong is just wrong.  You will most
> likely not get very many user complaints if there are a few spelling
> or punctuation errors, but if you give someone an instruction that
> causes something to crash or explode when it isn't supposed to,
> you can probably count on something nasty hitting a fan somewhere.
> 

Then there's somewhere in between: what about
a missing explanation that would cause users not
to make a common mistake while using the product
in a certain way? Leaving it out doesn't make
the documentation technically inaccurate but
it could cause the reader to use the product
incorrectly. Or explanations that are worded
so ambiguously or in such a convoluted way that
they don't convey the information in a usable
way even if they're technically accurate?

-- Janice

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