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Re: What Are Writing Skills?

Subject: Re: What Are Writing Skills?
From: Dick Margulis <margulisd -at- comcast -dot- net>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
Date: Mon, 21 Feb 2005 17:03:40 -0500




Tony Markos wrote:


My Comment: In terms of documenting systems, of
course English Departments don't understand how to
structure documentation! As Ed Yourdon (Data Flow
Diagram guru) teaches: Systems are multidimensional;
English (text) is one dimensional; it is not possible
to effectively document a multidemensional system
using single dimensionsional text.

I haven't read Yourdon. So I don't want to criticize based on your brief paraphrase of what he teaches. However, I have a different take on the dimensionality of text.

I've long visualized a document as a _projection_ (in two or three dimensions) of an n-dimensional data structure. So, yes, English text is one-dimensional. And if you will allow that tags/typographic differentiators are a second dimension (assuming they have semantic value) and that illustrations might constitute another dimension, that brings us up to three.

In analyzing the approach to take in documenting a system, you have to consciously decide what direction you want to illuminate the data structure from; but once the decision is made, there is no reason on earth that a document cannot fairly represent a multidimensional system.

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Re: What Are Writing Skills?: From: Tony Markos

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