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Subject:Re: Bad Documentation and Linux From:Robert Lauriston <robert -at- lauriston -dot- com> To:techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com Date:Fri, 4 Dec 2009 12:02:10 -0800
Also, there doesn't seem to be a Slashdot blogger named Barbara Hudson.
On Fri, Dec 4, 2009 at 11:59 AM, Robert Lauriston <robert -at- lauriston -dot- com> wrote:
> She didn't say the stuff she whipped out in two days was good, to the contrary:
>
> "The only time I've been paid to do GOOD documentation was when it was
> going to be used to wow investors during the dot-com boom," Slashdot
> blogger Barbara Hudson told LinuxInsider. "Bosses nowadays don't seem
> to get that good documentation saves money."
>
> Even worse, "when you document something, they don't even read it,
> even though they should," Hudson added.
>
> Case in point: "Last year I spent two days doing 'Complete
> Documentation -- everything -- and it needs to be ready by Thursday'
> of the system we were working on," she explained. "123 pages worth,
> table of contents, footnotes, index, overview, the whole bit."
>
> It was a week's worth of work done in two days, Hudson noted, but the
> result never got read.
>
> "Why? 'Oh, it's too big,'" she recounted.
>
> On Fri, Dec 4, 2009 at 10:01 AM, Dana Worley <dana -at- campbellsci -dot- com> wrote:
>> Some interesting comments about Linux documentation (or lack thereof). "Is Bad
>> Documentation Derailing Linux?"
>>
>> http://www.technewsworld.com/story/68798.html?wlc=1259948629
>>
>> I'm amused by the "they don't even read it" comments. The person says she was paid to
>> create GOOD documentation (her caps, not mine) -- 123 pages in two days. I bet my idea of
>> GOOD and her idea of GOOD are vastly different. I'd probably not read the document either
>> after the first few pages ;)
>
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