TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
> Many years ago, I found in a Borland book index "parrots, dead, _see_ dead
> parrots" and "dead parrots, _see_ parrots, dead" an obvious reference to
> the well-known Monty Python sketch. This reminded one of the engineers of
> another indexing joke: "recursive, _see_ recursive".
It reminds me of Stan Kelly-Bootle's wonderful books, "The Devil's DP
Dictionary" in the 70s and the recent revised version "The Computer
Contradictionary". Both have loop, endless: see endless loop, and the
recursive one too.
I bought four of these last year, using three as Christmas presents,
and I expect to buy another half-dozen this year.
sample definitions:
downtime n.: The period during which the system is stable and immune from
user input.
documentation n.: (latin docomentum, "warning"]
1. The promised literature which fails to arrive with the supporting hardware.
2. A single, illegible, photocopied page of proprietary caveats and suggested
infractions.
3. The detailed, unindexed description of a superceded package.
As for indexing jokes, someone in another discussion I was in claimed there
was a text on English grammar That mentioned Dan Quayle only in the index.
The index entry for him pointed to a page discussing complements of the verb
"to be" which had the examples:
He is stupid. (adjectival complement)
He is a republican. (noun phrase)
He is from Indiana. (prepositional phrase)
