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Subject:Re: Minimalism From:"Karl L. Smart" <KARLSM -at- WORDPERFECT -dot- COM> Date:Fri, 18 Feb 1994 14:26:14 -0700
I had some trouble posting this so will try again.
I'm very interested in minimalism and think we need more discussion as to
what it is and how it is applied to documentation. It's become a
buzzword that means everything from a shorter manual to a
task-oriented manual targeted to active learners.
In addition to the authors already mentioned on the list, a Dutch
researcher, Hans van der Meij, has done some significant work on
minimalism. He articulates four principles for designing a minimal
manual--action-oriented, text-optimization, support error recognition and
recovery, and modularity--in an article appearing in the SIGDOC '92
proceedings ("A Critical Assessment of the Minimalist Approach to
Documentation," pp 7-17). Hans is currently co-authoring an article with
John Carroll.
I'd like to see a complete list of references posted by someone who is
collecting them.
