RE: Tech writers and engineers

["John Posada" <JPosada -at- isogon -dot- com>]

>John, are you supposing we technical 
>writers know how to code? Personally 
>I don't think that's relevant. So 
>when someone mentions that the meetings 
>are too technical, I immediately understood 
>what that meant. I seriously doubt Tech 
>writers are expected to know how to code 
>software. That's the majority of the 
>meetings around here and YES they are too 
>technical.

Not at all, Dan. However, developers, in meetings, no matter how
advanced they are, use some words in the meeting that I can recognize.

A developer says: 

I've implement a feature where 
String createProcedure = "create procedure SHOW_SUPPLIERS " +
	 "as " +
	 "select SUPPLIERS.SUP_NAME, COFFEES.COF_NAME " +
	 "from SUPPLIERS, COFFEES " +
	 "where SUPPLIERS.SUP_ID = COFFEES.SUP_ID " +
	 "order by SUP_NAME";
that will select ....

I may not have the faintest idea of what that code does (in this case I
do), how it's implemented, where it came from or where it's going.
However, I heard the words "I've implemented" and my ears just stood up.
I may have jotted down a three-word comment and question mark with a
circle around it for further investigation, or I might have expressed an
immediate question on how does this impact the user's use of the
program, what does the feature do, and can we get together in the next
day or two for him to show it in action.

All I'm looking for in these meetings is hints...even if it's just an
indication that a particular functionality is being addressed in a
future release. I can then ask all my questions outside of the meeting.
"Bill...if I understand you correctly, you mentioned in the meeting that
you are looking at x. Is it going to impact what the user sees?

My needs are modest.

John Posada
Senior Technical Writer
Isogon Corporation
http://www.isogon.com