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RE: Remember secretaries? (was RE: Proof that content is more important than style)
Subject:RE: Remember secretaries? (was RE: Proof that content is more important than style) From:"David Downing" <DavidDowning -at- users -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Tue, 3 Dec 2002 11:22:34 -0500
<< I would expect most good programmers to also be good at writing.
The
cognitive skills are similar. Whether they choose to write text (as
opposed to writing programs) is another question. It's understandable
that they might prefer not to exercise the same set of "muscles" on two
different tasks.>>
Granted, the assertion that computer programmers can't write is a
stereotype. The problem is that they tend to have trouble writing about
a piece of software in the terms the end users needs. They tend to
think in terms of the anatomy of the software, rather than the actions
an end-user wants to take. The result is that a programmer could
produce a beautifully written document that was more a set of functional
specifications than a user manual.
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