Re: Good/bad docs

[Kevin Christy <kkchristy -at- YAHOO -dot- COM>]

---Steve Pendleton <SPendlet -at- cognex -dot- com> wrote:
>
> Was the third-party market originally driven by SW piracy?
> I've assumed that people stole the SW but not the book,
> which the SW vendor naturally wouldn't distribute by itself.
> The millions of people with pirate software then became an
> entrepreneurial opportunity for the publishers of the third-party
> books. The in-house writers now have out-house competitors.
>

As a registered owner of all the software that I use, I can't speak to
your issue.  I buy third-party books because they're better than the
documentation that comes with the software, especially in the last few
years.

Smart software houses, like Microsoft and Adobe, sell books to their
clients that arguably should have been included with the software in
the first place.  I suppose, though, that by "unbundling" value-added
items like documentation, the software house can reduce the price of
their product and collect on the back end from the people who really
use the documentation.  That does make a lot of sense.  In the end, I
don't really resent buying computer books, because for most major
software packages there are a number to choose from, and I can buy
what I need, packaged the way that suits me best.

I wonder if there is anyone here, now that I think of it, who writes
inhouse docs *and* outside docs for the same package (for instance, a
Microsoft tech writer who also writes for Microsoft Press about the
same package).  It would seem to me that they would be best suited for
the job of writing how-to books for sale.

-Kevin
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