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Subject:Preface: Judging others by yourself From:Robert Plamondon <robert -at- PLAMONDON -dot- COM> Date:Fri, 31 Mar 1995 14:18:02 PST
The whole point of front matter is that it's outside the definition of
the main work itself. A person who wants to dive into the main work
will skip the front matter, and that's appropriate. There's no need
to read the table of contents if you're going to read a work straight
through; there's no need to read the introduction if you already know
what the manual is about and how it came to be created.
On the other hand, a person who has just been dumped into a project
might like a little background BEFORE he wades into a specific
manual. Things like a thumbnail sketch of what the product does
(and why you'd care), how information is partitioned between the
manuals in the set, what's in this manual (and what it's good for)
-- all these "big-picture" issues give the reader the context he
desperately needs to get started.
Under those circumstances, readers do indeed read the front matter.
-- Robert
--
Robert Plamondon * Writer * robert -at- plamondon -dot- com * (408) 321-8771
4271 North First Street, #106 * San Jose * California * 95134-1215
"Writing is like plumbing -- even people who know how to do it will
pay top dollar to keep their hands clean."
