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.
Subject:Re: Help with program code layout wanted. From:Michael Krigsman <mkrigsman -at- CPUB -dot- COM> Date:Thu, 30 Mar 1995 19:26:46 -0500
At 02:36 PM 3/30/95 PST, John McDermott wrote:
>A company for whom I write has asked me an interesting question. They want
>to know if there are any documents (preferably short) to help them with
>rules for the layout of program code (mostly C, C++).
>The issue is that they often produce documents of, say, 50 columns. The
>authors of the material have programs which are longer than 50 characters
>and the people formatting the text don't know where it is legal to break
>lines and how to indent (if one should indent).
We also write documentation that includes C++ code. And our formatters have
the same problem. The solution we have developed is to have a proofreading
pass during which a programmer looks at the code explicitly for the purpose
of determining that the line breaks are acceptable. It's a real issue
because incorrect code breaks can prompt calls to tech support, which is of
course a problem.
Michael
Michael Krigsman Tel: (617)739-1860 ext.18
Cambridge Publications, Inc. Fax: (617)277-9990
60 Glen Road, Suite 105 Internet: mkrigsman -at- cpub -dot- com
Brookline, MA 02146 Compuserve: 73707,75
