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<snip>
> But I'm not sure the distinction holds up that easily, Michael. The
> end
> product of a newspaper is news -- as it happens. Newspapers too depend
> "on
> the finalization of the product" -- they don't finish the story about
> a
> football game until the game is finished, and if in the last minute
> and a
> half, played in overtime at 1 a.m., the underdog team comes from
> behind,
> intercepts two separate passes and scores goals on both of them, then
> the
> story has to change in time for the morning paper, no?
</snip>
Actually, the distinction lies in the fact that what has occurred does
not change, and they do not need the story to finish to report on it
(half-time scores during the news, ongoing coverage of Billy's troubles,
etc.).
To return to the sports reporter, once the half is over, it is over. He
can write that part of the story and not worry about the coach coming
back and changing the players and the plays. If number 32 fumbled, then
he fumbled, and you can safely put that down without fear that the coach
will go back and make number 27 fumble the ball instead.
Now, if I go and take screen captures of a program, there is no
guarantee that the screen will remain that way during the development
cycle. A developer can easily add a toolbar, menu item, or rearrange a
dialog box on the day of the release (has happened to me before -- MAJOR
interface change on the day of the release, with no forewarning I might
add), and then you either have to go back and re-capture all of the
affected screens and fix the book (and associated instructions), create
a release note that covers it, or, if you already have hundreds in
print, let it ride (and then YOU look bad, not the developer).
In effect, news has concrete "freeze" milestones (because it is such a
bother to travel back in time to change events), while software
development does not.
