TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
Subject:Re: respect for the button slogan From:"Michael West" <mike -dot- west -at- oz -dot- quest -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Fri, 24 Aug 2001 07:52:02 +1000
"Mandy Wells" <mandyw -at- platespin -dot- com> wrote in message news:119365 -at- techwr-l -dot- -dot- -dot-
--Doug wrote:
> > "Real programmers don't document. If it was hard to write, it
> > should be hard
> > to understand."
> > ~Slogan button seen at a techie convention
Mandy Wells wrote:
>Well, now I understood the "it" in "If it was hard to write, it should
>be hard to understand." to refer to the PROGRAM the programmer has
>written, and not the documentation.
Yes, the reference is clearly to code documentation, not
user documentation. In my programming days, my mentor
was a grizzled veteran whose motto was "work fast and
document nothing." He was good and he knew it. Pity the
poor sods who inherited his code and had to maintain it.
This is one reason why I object to calling technical writing
"documentation." Why prefer a vague word to a precise
word?
There is a lot of "documentation" that has nothing to do
with technical writing. You can 'document' something by
filling out a form, but it isn't technical writing. You can
'document' code by inserting comments in the listing,
but it isn't technical writing.
I've read a few complaints here about the fact that other
people 'don't know what it is we do.' Do we? Don't we
contribute to this vagueness by hiding behind vague words
like 'documentation' and 'documenter?
When people ask me what I do, I say I'm writer. When they
ask me what I write, I say 'software user manuals." Last
time I told someone that, they were quiet for a while and then
said: "Good god, man -- I never for a moment imagined that
someone actually wrote those bloody things." We had a
good laugh and went on to talk of other things. If I'd said
"I document things" I feel certain he would simply have
smiled politely and moved away hoping to meet someone
a little less strange. I know I would have.
*** Deva(tm) Tools for Dreamweaver and Deva(tm) Search ***
Build Contents, Indexes, and Search for Web Sites and Help Systems
Available now at http://www.devahelp.com or info -at- devahelp -dot- com
A landmark hotel, one of America's most beautiful cities, and
three and a half days of immersion in the state of the art:
IPCC 01, Oct. 24-27 in Santa Fe. http://ieeepcs.org/2001/
---
You are currently subscribed to techwr-l as: archive -at- raycomm -dot- com
To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-techwr-l-obscured -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com
Send administrative questions to ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com -dot- Visit http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/ for more resources and info.
