Re: Gantt Chart

["Wayne J. Douglass" <wayned -at- VERITY -dot- COM>]

At 07:30 PM 5/21/97 -0500, Susan Hamilton wrote:
>This brings up an interesting point about help and other software
>documentation. I have found that many times it is just as useful to
>include what you *cannot* do, as to include what you *can* do.
>Obviously you would have to apply this principle sparingly, but I
>think it has many benefits in many situations.
>
It *is* an interesting question - up to a point. This way madness lies if
you try to list *everything* your app can't do.

A QA person once asked me if I gave advice on what could go wrong with the
installation of a product I was documenting. I told him no because I can
only describe the app as is supposed to work. The ways it *can't* work are
myriad and unpredictable.

BTW, even though I posted a response to the original query regarding Gantt
charts in Ecel suggesting MS Project, my first reaction was, "Why would
anyone *expect* a Gantt chart from a spreadsheet?" Then I realized we had
what the logicians call a category error in the original post. Because
separate apps are frequently bundled together in "suites," the functionality
of one app in the suite bleeds into our expectations for functionality of
another app in the suite. A Gantt chart in Excel or Word? Why not? We
already have some spreadsheet functionality in Word and spelling checkers
for Excel.

--Wayne Douglass

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