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Re: Should software documenters learn to read code?
Subject:Re: Should software documenters learn to read code? From:John Posada <jposada99 -at- gmail -dot- com> To:"Downing, David" <DavidDowning -at- users -dot- com> Date:Thu, 12 Feb 2009 10:30:50 -0500
Not detrimentally. It could improve it because by understanding the
code, you can offer some insight that you may not be aware of
otherwise.
On Thu, Feb 12, 2009 at 10:27 AM, Downing, David <DavidDowning -at- users -dot- com> wrote:
> You don't think that really getting into the code could influence your
> thinking?
>
>> But there is a danger. One reason programmers tend to make bad
>> documenters is that they think in terms of the mechanics of the
> program,
>> rather than in terms of the tasks the end user needs to perform. I
>> technical writer who starts reading code might start thinking this way
>> as well.
>
> David...technical writers don't think in terms of tasks because they
> don't know something. They think in those terms because they DO know
> something; that it's the right way to do what they do.
>
> I don't think that knowing how to read some code is going to change
> that, unless they think that way to begin with.
> --
> John Posada
> Senior Technical Writer
> NYMetro STC President
>
> Looking for the next gig.
>
--
John Posada
Senior Technical Writer
NYMetro STC President
Looking for the next gig.
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