Re[2]: Programming vs. Technical Writing

["Walker, Arlen P" <Arlen -dot- P -dot- Walker -at- JCI -dot- COM>]

     ...but it seems to me that there's one critical difference between
     these two: people can extrapolate information to a relatively large
     degree when necessary.  They can work from context, read between the
     lines, fill in the blanks when necessary.

     Computers can't.  They have to be told EXACTLY what to do, and they
     will do it EXACTLY as they're told, and if they run into something
     they
     don't understand, they stop dead in their tracks until a human helps
     them out.

Weelll, yes and no. It's a critical difference between humans and
computers,
but that difference is accounted for in the process by writing for your
audience. The process is still the same, it's just the output is different
because of the differences in audiences. Just like papers on Quantum theory
would read differently and be of different lengths when aimed for
completely different audiences. The writing process itself would still be
much the same.
You would include everything required by the audience and leave out
everything else.

As for programmers being good writers, there's no question some of them
are.
But some quite brilliant programmers (Donald Knuth comes to mind) seem
incapable of putting themselves in the shoes of a user who has no idea
what's going on inside this mysterious box. Their texts are quite useful
for those already initiated into the mysteries, but hopelessly impenetrable
to those on the outside.


Have fun,
Arlen
Chief Managing Director In Charge, Department of Redundancy Department
DNRC 224

Arlen -dot- P -dot- Walker -at- JCI -dot- Com
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