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Subject:Re: Where did you get your feet wet? From:Stuart Burnfield <slb -at- westnet -dot- com -dot- au> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com> Date:Tue, 07 Jun 2005 20:38:49 +0800
Lisa H said:
> As an aside, I wonder how many writers in software documentation were
> former programmers who saw the light. Do let me know!
I was a mainframe application programmer for a few years. Liked it but
wasn't particularly good at it.
Moved back to my home state, got a job with an ex-boss who'd left to
start up a... uh, startup. There were three owner/directors. I was the
first employee. I was going to do a bit of everything--coding, testing,
first-line customer support, and all the user docs. Well, I never got to
do any coding. No point. The two techie directors were super-productive
programmers--each worth five good UNIX programmers and ten of me. I took
the support calls, wrote a real manual to replace the placeholder manual
they had before (WordPerfect for DOS running under a DOS emulator under
UNIX on a PC). While I was doing that they developed a couple more
products so I had to do manuals for those too (Word 6 on a 386--retch).
Was dragged reluctantly into getting FrameMaker. More products, more
manuals.
Bought books. Wondered if there was anyone else out there like me. Found
alt.usage.english, which led to techwr-l (Thanks, Bev Parks), and once
you're there, as Jerry Pournelle said in a different context, you're
half-way to anywhere.
Fame... riches... happiness... it's all good, mate!
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