Re: Software solution (tech writing tie in)

[Arlen -dot- P -dot- Walker -at- jci -dot- com]

>Not that I disagree with Arlen's well made point about the complexity that
>creeps into things over the years, but the point I was trying to make
seems
>to have been lost as it triggered Windows-phile's hot-buttons.

I showed the above passage to a neighbor in the cube farm, explaining that
it seemed to be aimed at me. He's gone now to get a Handi-Wipe to clean the
Pepsi off his monitor. ;{>}

>Sorry - as I say I use both Windows and
>Unix every day, and they each have their good and bad points.

That's pretty much what I said, except I don't think I included "good" in
my sentiments. "They all stink" was, I believe, my precise wording. And I
meant the "all" portion of that. I find little to admire in any of the OS's
around. One of my favorite Unix lines goes: "Unix *is* user-friendly. It's
just picky about who it makes friends with." I could go on for pages about
the stupidities in all of them (the Unix and Windows lists would overlap a
great deal, as the two sets of developers each seem intent on copying the
worst ideas the other comes up with) but I'll spare you the list. I wasn't
kidding earlier when I said I have seven different OS's around the place.
I'm in MacOS, Windows, and two flavors of Unix nearly every day (and often,
three flavors of Unix). And they *all* frustrate me. Oh, I can work in all
of them; I just don't trust any of them.

>Here's another situation which might make my point better; when I was
first
>learning to drive, I had trouble with clutch control on hill starts (hill
>starts are important in Sheffield!).

I used pretty much the same technique with my daughter. I was teaching her
to drive our manual shift and after I explained what was happening when she
worked the pedals, she did much better. She said it helped that she could
"see" what was happening. It's not a TW thing, because she has no interest
in TW (she's going into Forensic Chemistry). Maybe it's a science thing;
we're all into science, after all.

Have fun,
Arlen
Chief Managing Director In Charge, Department of Redundancy Department
DNRC 224

Arlen -dot- P -dot- Walker -at- JCI -dot- Com
----------------------------------------------
In God we trust; all others must provide data.
----------------------------------------------
Opinions expressed are mine and mine alone.
If JCI had an opinion on this, they'd hire someone else to deliver it.


^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

*** 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

A landmark hotel, one of America's most beautiful cities, and 
three and a half days of immersion in the state of the art:
IPCC 01, Oct. 24-27 in Santa Fe.  http://ieeepcs.org/2001/

---
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.