Re: PC hardware requirements for TWs

[Sharon Burton <sharonburton -at- EMAIL -dot- MSN -dot- COM>]

I am a consultant and as such bring my own computers to each project. But I
have been asked to recommended for clients and the case I present is this:

Technical writers are developing (a very key word here) documentation,
online help, graphics art, etc. As developers (again, that important word)
of this technical information, they need to have the fastest, biggest
computers available. You would not ask the software developers (notice that
parallel?) to develop code on an inferior and slow machine, would you? Of
course not. It would be a waste of their valuable development time as they
wait for the machine to catch up with what they are developing. The same
goes for the developers (getting the idea?) of technical information. Why
would you waste their development time waiting for the machines to catch up
with them?

Has worked in every case I have presented it.

Stop thinking like you are a marketing person or other person who doesn't
really need the high-end machines and you are off the critical path of
product development. You have to present things as though what you are doing
is every bit as important as writing code (or however your product is
created). The truth is you and your development efforts are as important as
the other parts of the product. What good is any product if no one knows how
to use it?

sharon

Sharon Burton
Anthrobytes Consulting
Home of RoboNEWS, the award-winning unofficial RoboHELP Newsletter
www.anthrobytes.com
anthrobytes -at- anthrobytes -dot- com


-----Original Message-----
From: Max Wyss <prodok -at- PRODOK -dot- CH>
To: TECHWR-L -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU <TECHWR-L -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU>
Date: Friday, 19 June, 1998 4:47 PM
Subject: Re: PC hardware requirements for TWs


>Sarah,
>
>of course, you can do technical documentation, DTP, Photoshopping with a
>166 MHz Pentium with 32 Meg RAM. You simply have to make clear to your boss
>that everything will take about 3 to 4 times as long.
>
>You don't say whether you are doing 4-color work for printing. If so, you
>may expect crashes with Photoshop, or certain filters are no longer
>available.
>
>The processor speed may not necessarily be the big problem, but with 32 Meg
>RAM you are definitely below anything recommended.
>
>However, you might be better with a machine having a fruit on its case
anyway.
>
>Good luck with your fighting against pointy-hairedness.
>
>
>Max Wyss
>PRODOK Engineering AG
>Technical documentation and translations, Electronic Publishing
>CH-8906 Bonstetten, Switzerland
>
>Fax:  +41 1 700 20 37
>e-mail:  mailto:prodok -at- prodok -dot- ch    or    100012 -dot- 44 -at- compuserve -dot- com
>
>
>Bridging the Knowledge Gap ...
>
>... with Acrobat Forms ... now for belt drive designers at
>
>       http://www.prodok.ch/prodok/riemen.html
>
>
>
>
>_____________
>
>
>
>
>
>>Fellow techwriters,
>>
>>I am interested in finding out the PC hardware my fellow techwriters are
>>using to run industry-standard applications such as FrameMaker, Photoshop,
>>Illustrator, Paint Shop Pro, RoboHelp, Doc-to-Help, and the like.
>>
>>For instance, what is your processor speed?  How much RAM do you have
>>installed?  Do you have a soundcard and speakers?
>>
>>Also, does anyone know of Web resources that publish information related
>>to this subject?
>>
>>I am asking because I need to make a business case for keeping the
>>P300/128 MB RAM Dell that I currently have.  My boss has informed me that
>>I have a "developer's machine" and will therefore be downgraded to a
>>P166/32 MB RAM as soon as new developer is hired.  I run desktop
>>publishing, graphics, winhelp, and HTML help applications.
>>
>>Thanks in advance,
>>
>>--Sarah
>
>
>