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>A software manual written like poetry,
>rhymed or otherwise, would have some merit
My dear departed friend Rudolph Langer used to boast that he could
write anything in iambic pentameter (Fools rush in where angels fear
to tread). Someone challenged him with an IBM computer manual (1950s
vintage), a large portion of which he successfully transformed into
that form.
Rudolph was a programmer who aspired to being a renaissance man. He
found his ideal job as editor-in-chief of Sybex, one of the first
publishers to specialize in computer-related books. He spent the
last 15 years of his life in that position.
When Rudolph died in 1995 I wrote a brief article about him in our
local STC newsletter. You can find it on my website at
Rudolph would never have thought of himself as a technical writer,
but he was a great lover of Shakespeare. He "collected" performances
of Hamlet, and introduced me to the works of the controversial
Shakespearean scholar John Dover Wilson. ...RM
Richard Mateosian <srm -at- cyberpass -dot- net> www.cyberpass.net/~srm/
Review Editor, IEEE Micro Berkeley, CA
