Re: Minimalism

[BILL KONRAD <konradb -at- UL -dot- COM>]

From: <geoff-h -at- MTL -dot- FERIC -dot- CA>, on 7/9/97 12:59 PM:
<<<<If pressed, I'd say that people who want
 to learn _about_ something need more than a minimalist
 approach, whereas those who simply want to _do_ something
 and forget about the details will appreciate minimalist
 docs. The problem is, there's a wide spectrum of users in
 between. >>>>

Yes, yes, yes.  I find some of Microsoft's (apparently minimalist) on-line
documentation absolutely infuriating because I often want to know more
about the how and why of what I'm doing.  I'm reluctant to blindly follow
simplistic step-by-step procedures to implement relatively advanced
features where I'm not sure what the outcome will be.  I'd much rather have
more conceptual background and several examples rather than numerous
simplistic procedures.

It sometimes seems that rigid minimalism decomposes an application into
hundreds (even thousands) of short, discrete step-by-step tasks but does
not provide enough context for users to find their way through the maze of
these tasks.
I sometimes get the feeling that such documentation was designed primarily
for people who already know what they want to do and only need a reminder.
But I find such docs are of little help if you don't know or if you are
fishing around and trying new things out.

Disclaimer: I'm sure that not all of Microsoft's documentation is equally
frustrating and also that MS is not the only company with such docs.

Bill

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