Re: Shakespearean technical writing?

Subject: Re: Shakespearean technical writing?
From: David Lettvin <dlettvin -at- YAHOO -dot- COM>
Date: Sat, 10 Oct 1998 07:15:56 -0700

I can no longer remember the name of the book (it belonged to the
school library), but it was about some aspect of programming. I was on
deadline and racing through the book when one paragraph stopped me in
my tracks. I read it again more slowly and suddenly realized that it
was a sonnet in paragraph form. The rhyme and meter were very good. It
was Petrarchan rather than Shakesperean. It wasn't great, but it was
competently executed.

I had this sudden vision of a scholar facing a life full of jargon and
active voice, reaching out with a word processor, that he wished were
a quill, hoping to make contact. When I went back to find the book a
few days later, I could no longer remember which one it was.

---Richard Mateosian <xrm -at- EMAIL -dot- MSN -dot- COM> wrote:

> 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.



==
Honi soit qui mal y pense.

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