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> Take the prime example -- VCRs. It's become a joke -- everyone's VCR
> blinks 12:00 (well, 1:00 during daylight savings time! <g>). Are we, as
> a country, really all that stupid? I don't think so. But some of the VCR
> UIs I've seen are abominable.
I don't think the blinking 12:00 is either a UI or a documentation issue.
The obvious fix is to put a small rechargable battery and a charging circuit
in the device. Then it would retain the time, and other info like station
presets, through a power outage.
The reason they don't is that price is a major issue in sales of VCRs and
they're "trimming costs" to "be competitive". For all I know, they're right
and a VCR that got this right but cost more would be a market flop.
The scary question is how this applies to some of the things we write
about and use, notably software. The "competitive advanatage" there is
perhaps less often price, more often "time to market". The consequences
are not just a minor dumbness in the design, as in the VCR case. They
range from inadequate design, through sloppy implementation, to "cost
trimming" in areas like documentation and testing.
"If carpenters built houses the way programmers build programs, the
first woodpecker to come along could destroy civilisation."
An interesting question is what we should do when the product we're
supposed to document brings those woodpeckers to mind.
(Apart from getting the resume ready, of course.)
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