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Subject:Switching from paper to computer From:Ken d'Albenas <kendal -at- AUTOTROL -dot- CUC -dot- AB -dot- CA> Date:Tue, 3 Aug 1993 13:14:32 MDT
On Chris Jacobs' query / comment about converting resources from paper
to interactive technology, John Sanders writes:
> Plan, plan, plan! Nothing is more important than having a clear,
> step-by-step plan when developing any online, interactive applications.
> It's also important, as part of the planning process, to develop a
> set of standards ahead of time...
Reminds me of William Horton's Laws of On-line Documentation
(STC Journal, 2Q 1993, p. 318), especially these gems:
14: No matter how carefully you plan, your first on-line documentation
project will cost three times what you planned and take twice as long.
15: Going on-line slowly takes five years. Going on-line in a hurry
takes seven years. With a crash program you can possibly do it in ten
years.
16: Planning and design add 30% to the time required to complete an
on-line documentation project. Omitting these activities adds 300%.
3, 17, and 32: Dumping paper documents on line is like:
(3) televising the pages of a novel
(17) taking the Concorde for a trip across town
(32) putting coal in your gas tank
> If you can afford it, develop a video tape (there's nothing like
> self-study, and _everyone_ (sic) has a VCR).
Grrrr. Although I own a couple of VCRs, not "everyone" does.
We generalize like this in unguarded moments, and we live to get
proven wrong. This kind of comment is a personal pet peeve; it
ranks right up there with "Everyone (who's anyone) is hooked into
the Internet," "Everyone knows how to use a VI editor," and "Everyone
knows that {Toronto|Boston|Hollywood} is the centre of the universe,
darling."
Cheers,
Ken d'Albenas
(-::
Replies to: kendal -at- autotrol -dot- cuc -dot- ab -dot- ca
Flames to: kendal@/dev/not
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----- "One seventh of your life is spent on Mondays."
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