Re: How to express differences among versions

Subject: Re: How to express differences among versions
From: "Abbruzzese, Anne" <ANNE -dot- ABBRUZZESE -at- CAI -dot- COM>
Date: Tue, 9 Mar 1999 13:52:03 -0500

Thanks to Ben, John...for responses so far. (I'm thrilled with TECHWR-L as
a resource and opportunity for contact with the outside tech. writing
world!) The votes are unanimous for "in" up to this point.

As to Ben's question whether I need to mention the different versions...I'm
not sure. I'm new in my position and to the product. It seems to be a long
standing convention to mention when features have been introduced in
products we support (but do not sell ourselves) especially if we do not
incorporate these features right away once they've become available. I
imagine it would help the user to know whether the feature is available to
them based on the version they are using. Or, knowing the version might
help the user to figure out where to look for more information? Thanks for
the thought, though. I will make a note to consider, once I've been around
a little longer, whether it's possible to eliminate these references.

Another note...just for fun since I don't think it's necessary to account
for this in making the decision which preposition to use: it seems to me
that the different prepositions imply words that have been left out of the
sentence:

> >1a) This element is available *in* VERSION DB2 5.1 and above/later.
> > b) This element is available *with* VERSION DB2 5.1 and above/later.
> > c) This element is available *at* LEVEL DB2 5.1 and above/later.
> >
>
Thanks again!
Anne
> ----------
> From: Ben Kovitz[SMTP:apteryx -at- chisp -dot- net]
> Sent: Tuesday, March 09, 1999 1:19 PM
> To: Abbruzzese, Anne; TECHWR-L -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU
> Subject: Re: How to express differences among versions
>
> Abbruzzese, Anne wrote:
>
> >I have scanned, though very quickly, the archives and my style resources
> for
> >tips on how to express the following:
> >
> >1a) This element is available *in* DB2 5.1 and above.
> > b) This element is available *with* DB2 5.1 and above.
> > c) This element is available *at* DB2 5.1 and above.
> >
> >2a) This field was introduced *with* DB2 5.1.
> > b) This field was introduced *in* DB2 5.1.
> > c) This field was introduced *by* DB2 5.1.
> > d) This field was introduced *at* DB2 5.1.
> >
> >If anyone has advice and decides to respond, I would be grateful if you
> >could copy me directly since I subscribe only to the digest. Thank you
> in
> >advance for your help!
>
> I'd go with "in" for both, same as John Posada.
>
> The reason is mainly that the others sound dorky to me, but if you want a
> harder reason, it's that you generally don't want to tell users about a
> temporal sequence of changing versions; you want to just tell them how to
> do their jobs. "In" seems to stress just the fact of the version
> containing the element or field, omitting or at least de-emphasizing the
> temporal aspect. This isn't much of a reason, since even if you need to
> talk about other versions than the current one, I'd still recommend "in"
> just on the basis of c.d. (coefficient of dorkiness).
>
> But this leads to my main suggestion: are you sure you can't avoid talking
> about different versions altogether? I recommend avoid the whole topic
> unless you have a very special, solid reason for talking about it. If I
> knew your reason for talking about different versions, I might be able to
> suggest something else. Care to tell us a little more?
>
> --
> Ben Kovitz <apteryx -at- chisp -dot- net>
> Author, _Practical Software Requirements: A Manual of Content & Style_
> http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1884777597
> http://www.manning.com/Kovitz
>
>


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