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Subject:Re: User documentation as product specs? From:David Ibbetson <ibbetson -at- IDIRECT -dot- COM> Date:Sat, 20 Apr 1996 16:48:53 -0400
An electronics company I met in England as a result of a merger (we found
ourselves in the same group) started any project, hardware, software, or
whatever, by breaking the product into modules and defining every interface
before anything else was done. This explicitly included at one end the
man-computer interface and at the other end the interface between the
computer and whatever (printer, traffic-signals, fly-by-wire aircraft
controls...)
This way of proceeding was new to my division. We adopted it and found that
it worked very well. Among other things, with well-defined interfaces the
people working on the various parts could get on with their jobs with the
minimum of interference from people working on other parts. (It's better to
have too much parameter space than too little and too many defined
parameters than too few!)
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"Many terms which have now dropped out of favour will be revived, and those
that are at present respectable will drop out, if usage so choose, with whom
lies the decision, the judgement, and the rule of speech" -- Horace, _Ars
Poetica_
David Ibbetson, 133 Wilton St, #506, Toronto, M5A 4A4
ibbetson -at- idirect -dot- com (416)363-6692 fax (416)363-4987
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