TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
Re: Stupid users (was Re: Is there a term for this?)
Subject:Re: Stupid users (was Re: Is there a term for this?) From:Phil Snow Leopard <philstokes03 -at- googlemail -dot- com> To:Peter Neilson <neilson -at- windstream -dot- net>, "techwrl (techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com)" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com> Date:Wed, 8 Feb 2012 23:29:20 +0700
Hi Peter
Those features are programmed in at the API level. It's up to the app developer for each app whether they want to offer those features and whether they want to make them configurable. There's already some 3rd-party apps that allow you to turn off autosave and versions, but none of Apple's own apps offer that option.
That means it's a design choice — Apple didn't document it for their own proprietary s/w because it's not available; and it's not available because someone somewhere up the chain decided that they want to 'educate' users to working in the new Apple way...
It's this kind of thinking that is turning me away from an OS I've been involved with for most of my computing life (and lord knows I don't take such a decision lightly, after the years I've spent learning Mac OS X, the thought of starting from scratch with a whole new system like Linux is more daunting than climbing Everest... :-(
> On Wed, 08 Feb 2012 10:11:12 -0500, Phil Snow Leopard <philstokes03 -at- googlemail -dot- com> wrote:
>
>> There is NO way to turn of Autosave ...
>
> That and the rest of the hokey design should have been caught by SQA or by the TW staff way back at the Requirement Spec phase. I'm certain there was a design spec. There has to be. The idea of "just shove in these changes" went out long ago. (Or did it come back in with Agile?)
>
> Do tech writers ever see Requirement Specs any more? I've not seen them in about a quarter century, but perhaps that because of where I've worked.
>
> So I would have liked to be a fly on the Apple Tech Pubs wall...
>
> TW: I want to document how to turn off autosave, but I don't see it in the spec. How do I do it?
> SME: You can't.
> TW: Of course you can. The users will ask how, and my doc will look stupid if I can't tell them.
> SME: No it won't. They won't want to turn it off.
> TW: How do you know that, and what should I say?
> SME: We did a study. Nobody mentioned it. So just don't you mention it. It's not a problem. Don't worry. No one will care.
> TW: [gnashing of teeth]
> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
