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Alex Silbajoris [mailto:alsilba -at- hotmail -dot- com] asked about "Spaced out...
specification documents prepared by developers, ...I wonder if ...
there's some tactful way to tell them they're keystroking like they're
unaware the software can wrap lines?"
______________
I worked at a couple of companies where all the Unix terminals were replaced
by PCs with terminal emulators. Have you ever used the VI Unix editor?
(That's the most sophisticated code/text editor that most of the Unix
developers had ever used.) The administrative and clerical people were given
training on Word or whatever was the company's newest word-processing
system, but it never occurred to management to extend that training to the
developers.
The requirements docs I got to work with were an unbelievable mixture of
unreadable fonts, with tiny font sizes, no spacing between paragraphs, no
carriage returns, or <shift><enter> line breaks in place of CRs.
At the second company, I ended up creating Word templates for each type of
requirements document used, and put them out on the public drive on the
network. I put highlighted dummy text in the templates, which I used to not
only describe the type of information required in each section, but included
tutorial information on using styles, adding or deleting rows from sample
tables, changing the dummy headers and footers to include the actual product
names, etc.
One programmer discovered them, and used them to create her required data
flow document and subsection specification, and spread the word. In a
couple of months, most of the programmers in the division were using them.
My job of compiling and editing the test plans created by my Integration
Testing group became easier because we could read the specs. The Tech Pubs
group told me that the docs made with the templates were more complete, and
could be reviewed to determine what needed to be revised in the user
manuals, too.
The syndrome of developers who never used a word processor is more prevalent
than you think. However, new graduates that have used one to type their
work through high school and college don't need as much help as the folks
who have lived in Unix for 10 or 15 years.
Margaret Cekis
Margaret -at- mediaocean -dot- com
Atlanta GA
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