Re: Empiric studies on the impact of documentation

["Peter Neilson" <neilson -at- windstream -dot- net>]

Indeed. I agree that no objective measurements are possible.

The only study I've ever seen was an informal survey, about 35 years ago,  
taken through mail-in cards attached to manuals published by Prime  
Computer. The user was to rate Prime's documentation against other named  
computer companies, and would receive a free pocket guide for the effort.  
The ratings were always "far better than IBM". (IBM's business model at  
that time still regarded training classes as a major source of revenue, so  
their manuals were deliberately obscure.)

Prime's sales offices could request the printed manuals from stock so that  
they could use them as part of the sales effort. The method apparently  
worked quite well.

Curiously, some of the sales offices also SOLD the manuals, which were  
charged to the Tech Pubs budget, to customers for cash. They kept the  
money, and used it to fund their office Christmas parties. This caused a  
tremendous and uncontrollable outflow of money from the Tech Pubs  
department.

The pocket guides, by the way, were a direct copy in format from the  
similar and very popular cheat-cards produced a decade earlier by  
Teradyne. They were created by Teradyne's sole tech writer, Alexis Belash.  
Alexis went to the Brooks Brothers clothing store in Boston and measured  
the size of the pockets of men's shirts, so that the cards would fit in a  
pocket, unlike the huge IBM 360 Green Card (eventually the 370 Yellow  
Card). Prime's publication designer was a friend of Alexis.

On Tue, 26 Mar 2019 13:11:46 -0400, Robert Lauriston  
<robert -at- lauriston -dot- com> wrote: