RE: Microsoft developer doc revamp

["Steve Hudson" <sh1448291904 -at- gmail -dot- com>]

Indeed, for back in the 'bad ole days' of 'puting, no-one had a clue what
this software stuff was. "A spreadsheet? Someone said it could help with my
small business..."

These days consumers are a lot more tech savvy and prepared to dig through
menus and options to find stuff they know should be there. School leavers
have had experience with a variety of packages (whether mandated by
curricula, or just from casual life experiences.

And of course, the moment that s/w dev stated "As little doco as possible" I
lost all hope and semi-departed the scene.

Steve
Always the heretic (but know that most people don't really get that part)

-----Original Message-----
From: techwr-l-bounces+sh1448291904=gmail -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
[mailto:techwr-l-bounces+sh1448291904=gmail -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com] On
Behalf Of Robert Lauriston
Sent: Friday, 6 May 2016 0:30
To: TECHWR-L Writing <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
Subject: Re: Microsoft developer doc revamp

I hung on to an MS-DOS 5? 6? manual for years because the command-line and
batch file references were great. It was a model of organization and
clarity.

The Lotus 1-2-3 manuals from the same era (1990?) were also great, as were
Adobe's circa 1995-2000.

I think in those days manuals had to be good for software to sell well.

On Thu, May 5, 2016 at 6:50 AM, Mike McCallister
<mike -dot- mccallister -at- pkware -dot- com> wrote:
> Got this link from a developer. Nothing in here about user docs, but
success in one area can spread.
>
> http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2016/05/microsoft-unveil
> s-new-effort-to-make-its-developer-it-documentation-great-again/
>
> Some comments are valuable, in discussing the "golden age of Microsoft
documentation," with pointers to the DOS docs. Curious to hear what others
think about the state of Microsoft docs (dev and user).
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