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John Posada wrote:
What if your readers aren't programmers?
They don't approach using an application like a programmer does.
Wouldn't you say that a programmer revels in learning really complex
applications and squeezing out the last drop of feature, and a
non-programmer wants to get from point A to Point Z with no wish to
learn the guts of an application, only what they need to do their job?
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I totally agree with you. I wasn't suggesting to write in programmer-think (unless you're writing for programmers).
There are times when knowing how the feature is coded can help you understand how it works though. It then becomes your responsibility to tailor your description of that feature to your target audience. If your target audience is the typical "no-time-don't-care" type, then technical details should be left out, but at least by knowing the technical details yourself there is a better chance that the information you've put in the doc is accurate and you should be in a better position to decide what should go into your docs and what can be left out. I'm not saying this applies across the board to every application for every user for every document in every environment. But I can think of environments where this approach works. I'm working in one now.
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