Spaced: Back to Earth

Subject: Spaced: Back to Earth
From: "Alex Silbajoris" <alsilba -at- hotmail -dot- com>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com>
Date: Fri, 30 Nov 2001 12:26:54



Thanks, all, for your reponses about developers using spaces to wrap and format text. What you said makes sense, and since I wrote about it earlier this week, I've been wading through the actual code and occasionally copying blocks of screen text. When I paste it into a document, it's full of spaces, which explains some of what I've been seeing.

I know some of the developers don't like to use the show/hide option to display tabs, spaces, etc., and when they wrap with spaces they think hey, it looks fine. And yes, some of them use word processors with the minimum possible commitment to skillful learning. (That last point explains a lot about the way many people drive; skill requires effort so most people won't invest in it.)

As for plain text, I have asked for that in some jobs, and the people think I'm crazy. But it's true that it is far easier to format plain text with some ready styles than it is to de-format someone's attempt at styles.

As for educating them, that's an interesting matter. Our department is named "Documentation and Training" so it is our business to train internal and external audiences. I would like to set up some in-house classes in Word and Visio, and the admins have made noises about going ahead with it, but no one is buying into it yet. And there is an element of resentment among people when they think you're trying to tell them how to do their job.

So for the time being, I'm leaning on the delete button, watching little dots march across the screen, and trying not to think of counting sheep.

- A


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