Re[2]: online vs. paper

["Arlen P. Walker" <Arlen -dot- P -dot- Walker -at- JCI -dot- COM>]

      If the explanation has anything to do with what the user can or cannot do
      with the product, I'd be in favor of having it online.

If it's online only, it means I can't check it without having the computer
handy. I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm the habit of taking manuals
for new software with me, either home or on trips, so I can read it in my spare
time and get up to speed on it faster. I don't have a laptop, and even if I did
I wouldn't want to take it with me to the dentist's waiting room, as an
example. I learned C on three plane trips, for example. I couldn't have dome
that if the only documentation was online.

      This is a matter of convenience:

I agree. And sometimes it's just not convenient for me to fire up my computer
at home, just to answer a question which should easily be found in a reference
manual. Maybe, to use the tax question, I'm organizing some tax documents in my
home office, and I want to know if the tax software I've got will do federal
schedule SE, and blend it properly into the Wisconsin state form. Should I be
forced to stop what I'm doing, turn on my computer, wait for the OS and the Tax
SW to load, just to look up a simple question like that?

      if the question occurs to me while I'm working with the
      product, then I should be able to get the answer without leaving my desk.

Assuming you keep your manuals at your desk (I do, mostly) on-line or paper
will both satisfy that requirement.

      If the question would never occur to me while I'm using the product, I
      question whether it belongs with the product at all.

The question is not whether it will occur to you while you're using the product.
The question is whether it will occur to you while you're *not* using the
product, such as while proposing to your standards committee that the company
standardize on this product. (I know, most of these questions should be answered
before ever appearing. But if your organization plays politics the way ours
does, you *know* that someone will be saving one question for the approval
meeting, just to impress on their boss how eseential they are. You rarely have
the SW running during the meeting, and it's so much easier to flip open the
manual and say "Yes, it does that, too. Just hold down leftshift-rightcontrol-
uparrow while typing the alphabet backwards.")

It seems to me the ultimate arrogance to insist the user, who might not have the
time or inclination to *do* the task right now, run the SW simply to figure out
how much trouble it is (and therefore how much time it will take later) to do
that particular task.


Have fun,
Arlen


Arlen -dot- P -dot- Walker -at- JCI -dot- Com
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