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Subject:Re: Table that spreads over multiple pages From:"Nora Merhar" <nora -at- helloworld -dot- sh> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Fri, 6 Aug 2004 15:02:38 -0000 (GMT)
Gene is absolutely correct (especially about how agonizing the reviews
are...). The only other comment I can make is that for certain types of
milspecs, fault codes are in one manual and the troubleshooting for them
is in another--so that when personnel go to the troubleshooting manual,
they know exactly where they need to go, and the SIZE of the table really
isn't a problem.
Changing the format to suit what you think works better may violate the
spec that the document is written to, and cause the document to be
rejected. If the document spec has been updated, you may be able to make
changes that you think are more "sane", but unless you are taking this
document for civilian use, you shouldn't violate the spec. You'd just have
to rewrite it anyway.
>
> Given that this is a military document, I'm not at all sure it's so
> obvious. Milspec docs are the result of long and often agonizing
> multiple reviews intended to produce standardization, and while
> the result is often ungainly, it is usually quite standardized. New
> users are trained to them, and existing users are accustomed to
> finding things where they are, often under working conditions
> unlike any the average reader ever has to deal with. If your job
> is merely to update this beast, you should first find out whether a
> format change is wanted and what the results of such an update
> on training programs and on other documents with references
> to it would be. The standard "contents subject to change without
> notice" label we often put on docs in the civilian world doesn't
> necessarily apply when you're working in Milspec.
>
> Gene Kim-Eng
--
Nora
nora -at- helloworld -dot- sh
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