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.
On Mon, 2 Jul 2001 10:18:43 +0100, "Jane Carnall" <jane -dot- carnall -at- digitalbridges -dot- com> wrote:
>Along with the documentation, we are providing four code templates. These
>templates *can* be read in Notepad, but they're most easily readable in
>TextPad, a shareware text editor produced by another company with whom we
>have no connection other than that we use their product. I considered
>editing them again to render them easily readable in Notepad, but they're so
>easily readable in TextPad that I'd like to recommend users download that.
>...
Jane:
I'd be careful treading into the text editor wars, which, knowingly or not, is what you propose to do.
I, like many longtime developers, have a nearly religious attachment to my text editor of choice, which is neither Notepad nor TextPad. Many UNIX developers learned vi and stopped there; they use vi even on Windows and Mac. Other developers favor EMACS.
The world is full of quirky little text editors, shareware and otherwise, that no one but their users ever heard of.
My recommendation (I noticed you did not ask for it, but I will tender it nevertheless) is that you format your code templates into the plainest text you can manage, and check out how it looks on a variety of platforms in various text editors.
The odds of an experienced programmer downloading and learning to use a new text editor because you recommend it: slim to none.
The odds of an experienced programmer needing to edit your code templates using a plain text editor you never dreamed of: 1 (or more) in two.
The odds of an inexperienced programmer downloading and learning to use a new text editor because you recommend it: Well, maybe. But why would you want to add this extra thing for them to have to learn to use, and is there anyone else at their company already using it to help them with it, or are you going to write a tutorial and bundle it with your software, and, by the way, what if the shareware company ceases to exist?
Just my $.02 or so.
--Emily
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~ Emily Berk ~
On the web at www.armadillosoft.com *** Armadillo Associates, Inc. ~
~ Project management, developer relations and ~
extremely-technical technical documentation that developers find useful.~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
*** Deva(tm) Tools for Dreamweaver and Deva(tm) Search ***
Build Contents, Indexes, and Search for Web Sites and Help Systems
Available now at http://www.devahelp.com or info -at- devahelp -dot- com
TECH*COMM 2001 Conference, July 15-18 in Washington, DC
The Help Technology Conference, August 21-24 in Boston, MA
Details and online registration at http://www.SolutionsEvents.com
---
You are currently subscribed to techwr-l as: archive -at- raycomm -dot- com
To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-techwr-l-obscured -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com
Send administrative questions to ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com -dot- Visit http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/ for more resources and info.
