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>> Perhaps not the best choice of words by Andrew, but as to the sentiment... I
>> always remember some advice I was given when I first started writing (by a
>> very senior writer and excellent mentor) - if you have no idea who your
>> audience is then treat them as idiots, as if they know nothing about what
>> you're writing. If they DON'T, then they'll be happy and get the info they
>> need. If they are much more experienced they may think the docs are a bit
>> simple/condescending/whatever then they will skim read the docs and STILL
>> get the info they need. Fortunately, we're not usually in such dire straits
>> and we generally know (at least roughly) at what level to pitch the
>> documentation and it's usually geared to the lowest level of knowledge. If
>> we've the luxury of time (who has?!) we can make the docs 2/3-tier so the
>> readers can enter at their own level but sometimes you just gotta drop down
>> to the bottom level. The last job I had the documentation was for access
>> control systems with the software being installed/adminstered by people with
>> NO prior PC knowledge (some that came for training didn't know what a mouse
>> was) right up to system administrators
>
> Damien Braniff
