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Subject:Re: Bad Documentation and Linux From:Robert Lauriston <robert -at- lauriston -dot- com> To:techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com Date:Fri, 4 Dec 2009 11:59:27 -0800
She didn't say the stuff she whipped out in two days was good, to the contrary:
"The only time I've been paid to do GOOD documentation was when it was
going to be used to wow investors during the dot-com boom," Slashdot
blogger Barbara Hudson told LinuxInsider. "Bosses nowadays don't seem
to get that good documentation saves money."
Even worse, "when you document something, they don't even read it,
even though they should," Hudson added.
Case in point: "Last year I spent two days doing 'Complete
Documentation -- everything -- and it needs to be ready by Thursday'
of the system we were working on," she explained. "123 pages worth,
table of contents, footnotes, index, overview, the whole bit."
It was a week's worth of work done in two days, Hudson noted, but the
result never got read.
"Why? 'Oh, it's too big,'" she recounted.
On Fri, Dec 4, 2009 at 10:01 AM, Dana Worley <dana -at- campbellsci -dot- com> wrote:
> Some interesting comments about Linux documentation (or lack thereof). "Is Bad
> Documentation Derailing Linux?"
>
>http://www.technewsworld.com/story/68798.html?wlc=1259948629
>
> I'm amused by the "they don't even read it" comments. The person says she was paid to
> create GOOD documentation (her caps, not mine) -- 123 pages in two days. I bet my idea of
> GOOD and her idea of GOOD are vastly different. I'd probably not read the document either
> after the first few pages ;)
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