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Subject:writing around desgin flaws From:Alexander Von_obert <avobert -at- TWH -dot- MSN -dot- SUB -dot- ORG> Date:Sun, 19 Nov 1995 23:33:00 +0100
Hello Tammy,
* Antwort auf eine Nachricht von Tammy Hale an All am 15.11.95
TH> From: Tammy Hale <tammyh -at- fgm -dot- com>
TH> I'm interested in how people
TH> write around serious flaws for which there is no logical
TH> explanation. And,
TH> for the sake of discussion, let's assume that there is no way
TH> to get rid of these design flaws.
First, an description of that sitiation: You are supposed to sell bugs as
features. Often management or programmers really think of the bug of being a
feature. In my opinion, this is more serious than time pressure just before a
deadline.
The elegant way is to do a step-by-step description of the way around the bug.
This way you need not even talk about the bug and can tell those falling into
the gap "RTFM".
Next, you could add some kind of tip to your manual or online documentation:
"Unter certain circumstances, it might be advisable...". This is the
marketing-friendly way.
But there are times when you must take the bull by the horns. This happens
especially at dangerous machinery where you must not disguise the problem. As
a contracor, I have even refused to write a certain chapter of a manual
because I was shure that the machinery was to dangerous and that the
developement engineers had to do their homework first.
Greetings from Germany,
Alexander
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