Railroad Diagrams

Subject: Railroad Diagrams
From: nhays -at- VNET -dot- IBM -dot- COM
Date: Thu, 21 Nov 1996 14:16:29 BKK

> When the whole system is documented it looks like a map of
> a railroad yard. They haven't been all the popular, but folks who like them
> are fanatical about it. I find them good a memory jogger or job aid, but no
> substitute for a good reference.

I wouldn't say I was fanatical about them, but I tend to think they are
a much clearer and easier method for documenting command syntax than BNF.
This is particulary true for complex commands with many options.
The worst case I ever had was a single command which I had to print at
70% so would fit on a single A4 page. The Bookmaster code for it was
pages long, and something of a challenge to write.
In BNF it would have looked like modem noise.

Neale Hays
Senior Technical Writer
TCP
IBM Thailand
nhays -at- vnet -dot- ibm -dot- com


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