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I have been following this thread (Documenting OO Applications) with interest as
OO programming is the coming thing at my company. I also find it interesting
because of some contradictions I seem to see.
Examples:
Mike Wing writes:
snip>> with O-O, a piece of functionality (often referred
to as an applet) can be reused in several applications. Therefore, a
single text applet can be used for a word processor, spread sheet, a 2-D
drawing package, and so forth.<<
>>Reusable functionality creates a need for documentation that is not
application-specific. Therefore, the documentation on using the text
edit commands cannot reference specific products, menus, dialog boxes
(unless indigenous to the applet), or functionality outside of itself.
This modularity affects on-line documents to a greater degree,
especially if context-sensitivity is involved.<<snip
Sue Gallagher writes:
snip>>So, when you're documenting an OO, or event-driven, application it is
much more important to be task-centric rather than function- or interface-
centric. Also, any "structure" imposed on the user in the way the
application is used mostly comes from the documentation since it's not
inherent in the application itself--although the application can
disallow certain actions until other certain actions have happened,
most commonly by dimming or hiding controls until specific criteria is
met.<<snip
So, are we faced with the challenge of being "task-centric" while not knowing if
the user is using a "a word processor, spread sheet, a 2-D drawing package, [or]
so forth"?
Jim Shaeffer
jlshaeff -at- spryenet -dot- com
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