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Re: Cheicken and eggs scenario for structred writing

Subject: Re: Cheicken and eggs scenario for structred writing
From: "Peter Neilson" <neilson -at- windstream -dot- net>
To: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Date: Wed, 24 Jul 2013 05:48:40 -0400

On Wed, 24 Jul 2013 04:36:11 -0400, David Harrison <dharrison -at- moldmasters -dot- com> wrote:

* same user manuals with subtle variants

It's those subtle differences that'll kill you. You may discover that three manuals, identical to start with, have grown localized variations and are now basically incompatible with each other. Worse, an entire subset of them are known by the same part number, owing to a bad ad-hoc decision or to a difficulty in obtaining separate part numbers. To update one paragraph that appears, in various guises, in 23 of the 37 similar manuals may require the careful attention of three writers (one of whom knows Canadian French) for four agonizing months. See if you can find a tool that'll keep a mess like that sorted out properly!

Here endeth another of my jaundiced views of tech writing.


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References:
Cheicken and eggs scenario for structred writing: From: David Harrison

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