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> I have an issue with this, one that seems to come up over and
> over: why does
> this have to be a one-way street? Why is it often offered as
> a "solution" to
> kowtow to the programmer god?
Of course, it shouldn't be one-way. However, in practice, it
often is because:
1.) in (too) many places, writers aren't part of the development
team from the start.
2.) writers tend to be badly outnumbered by the coders.
3.) the average writer has social skills that the average coder
lacks.
4.) most coders couldn't care if the documentation gets done (or,
for that matter, if a project is even finished) so long as they
can continue to code. By contrast, writers have a very high stake
in the documentation. Usually, the person who has the least stake
in any relation is the one who controls it.
5.) coding has a mystique. As for writing... well, everyone
learned to write in Grade 1 or 2, didn't they?
--
Bruce Byfield, Outlaw Communications
"The Open Road" column, Maximum Linux
3015 Aries Place, Burnaby, BC V3J 7E8, Canada
bbyfield -at- axionet -dot- com 604.421.7189
"I should have known it from the start,
It's not the truth that really matters,
The real world tramples on such things,
Leaves your mental state in tatters."
-James Keelaghan, "Small Rebellions"
