repost screen dumps in books

["Brierley, Sean" <Brierley -at- QUODATA -dot- COM>]

Hallo:

Please forgive my repost but I sent the original in a format that
produced unreadable =10 linebreaks.

Thanks for your help.

Sean



Hallo:

Anyone have any thoughts on the best way to handle the following?

I am writing s/w release notes for VAX/VMS-based software. One of the
items that programming wants is numerous screen dumps written into the
release notes. By screen dump, I mean one or more screen of textual
information, some of which are prompts at which the user types a
response.

I am used to writing for Macs and Windows machines. In these
environments I am loathe to reproduce screens in my documentation
without great reason. I see little need for it. In the VAX/VMS software,
it is pretty clear that the screen dumps must stay. I format them in
Courier to mimic the fixed-width font the user sees and to provide a
visual clue that this is not regular text. However, that is not enough.
Programming wants the lines to wrap and align as they do on the user's
terminal.

I explained that the 4:3 width:height ratio of the screen made it
ill-suited for reproduction on an 8 x 10 (after conservative margins)
sheet. I offered to make the book landscape but that approach is not
what anyone is looking for. I described that printed material did not
lend itself well to the layout seen on-screen, including the use of
both, attention span, idea that 4-inch line width may be an optimal
target, etc. All very traditional.

From the LISTSERV I am looking for general opinions about including
screen dumps. Also, does anyone have a thought about how I should
discuss this issue with those who want the screen dumps to mirror the
screen?

Thanks.

Sean
sean -at- quodata -dot- com

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