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Subject:Re: couple of questions From:"Doug, Data Librarian at Ext 4225" <engstromdd -at- PHIBRED -dot- COM> Date:Tue, 7 Nov 1995 08:45:07 -0600
Jane:
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We're under fire at work. Suddenly our boss thinks that tech writers
ought to be able to read C and do telephony scripting using C
commands. He says that he and the president of our company think that
"most tech writers ought to be capable of this." Is this true? The
engineers who are currently helping us (two tech writers) say they've
never known a tech writer who can write these scripts, but I'm
wondering if there is something I don't know about the rest of the
tech writers out there!
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Hey, learn a new and marketable skill on somebody else's dime? Grab the
opportunity and fall on it.
While you may never get to be a full-blown C programmer, simple coding just
-isn't- beyond the grasp of most mere mortals, no matter what the Comp Sci
types may try to tell you. Doing professional-quality work, learning to do
analysis, doing it in a reasonable amount of time... That's the hard part.
However, your boss has basically announced he's willing to pay for either
some training or a -very- long period of initial fumbling while you get
your C legs, so take him up on it with a glad heart. He's adding to your
real wealth (ie your skill and information base) at the company's expense.
Whether this is smart for the company or not is not your problem.
I taught myself enough MS-Access Basic to create a database publishing
application. It was outside my area, the final cost of the system is
probably outrageous when you look at the value of the time sunk into it,
-BUT- I know far more about the care and feeding of relational databases
than I could have learned any other way, and it's starting to come in
handy on my main job (system documentation for programmers). As I've said
here before, there is no substitute for -being- as user of your own
systems.
So, I say: take'm for all they're worth. If the Philistines think they're
getting by on the cheap, so much the better...
Skoal,
Doug "No one gets to miss the storm of What Will Be,
ENGSTROMDD -at- phibred -dot- com just holding on for the ride."
-- The Indigo Girls
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The preceding opinions and positions are mine alone, and are only
coincidentally related to those of Pioneer Hi-Bred International, Inc.
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