[FM Discuss] Discussion about "Bridging the gap between software quality and software education"

[adam hyde]

a wiki, or we could start a manual about documenting free software?


adam


On Tue, 2009-07-07 at 11:13 -0400, Andy Oram wrote:
> I have a lot of thoughts, and maybe this list isn't the best place for them. I could put up the article as a wiki. I'm glad I shared it here before publishing it, because it might be wrong (as Adam or Anne suggest) or I might just have to distinguish between different types of documentation/education projects that have different needs and different chances of success.
> 
> Would you guys like a wiki?
> 
> Andy
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Anne Gentle <annegentle at justwriteclick.com>
> To: discuss at lists.flossmanuals.net
> Sent: Tue, 7 Jul 2009 10:20:20 -0400 (EDT)
> Subject: Re: [FM Discuss] Discussion about "Bridging the gap between software quality and software education"
> 
> Yes, let's not perpetuate the myth that "technical writing is boring." Most
> certainly it is not, although apparently Tom Johnson gets that question
> quite often. He has a discussion here:
> http://www.idratherbewriting.com/2007/02/13/is-technical-writing-boring/.
> Lots of discussion ensued.
> 
> Personally, I can't say it's "fun" all the time, but I can say it's
> enjoyable when you're working with good people using tools that help you
> infuse feedback and continual improvements that truly help people. I'm
> motivated by time savings, efficiency, altruistic intentions, attention
> generation, and so on. Likely the same motivations are in play for actually
> writing the software - though often the software was written to solve a
> basic problem (Apache to serve web pages). My point was that writing
> documentation can solve a few different problems, and "education" may be too
> broad.
> 
> Thanks for the thought-provoking article!
> Anne
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