Enter vs. Type and various other stuff

["RJULIUS.US.ORACLE.COM" <RJULIUS -at- US -dot- ORACLE -dot- COM>]

Gee, I sent this yesterday but it still hasn't shown up on the list.  Sorry if
it appears twice.
Many of the issues I've seen beaten to death during my first week on the tech
whorl list (whorl, as in vortex) do not have absolute answers.  One of the
keys to doing [whatever it is] the right way is to Know Your Audience.

Say you have a software product where the endusers may be, well, clueless.  In
the User Guide, you might see this passage:

"When you click on the X button, [productname] displays the Y dialog box.
Your cursor will appear in the Z field; this field displays a default value.
You can change this value by typing in a new value.  Once you have entered the
correct value, TAB to the next field and enter [whatever].  You must complete
all fields before [productname] can process the information in this dialog
box.  To accept the information displayed, press the ENTER key.  To return to
the previous screen without processing any of this information, press the ESC
key."

[Whew, that was a lot of typing (I did this on the fly, so don't read too much
into it--I'm just making a point).]

Now if the same process was described in, say, the System Admin guide, where
the audience was made up of savvy computer-literate types:

"When you click on X, the Y dialog prompts you for Z.  Accept the default or
type in a new value.  All fields in this dialog are required."

Though they describe the same thing, each type of passage may be appropriate
for their intended audience.  I had a professor once describe this as
peritaxis (letting the reader make their own connections so they think about
what they're doing) vs. hypotaxis (writing everything down so as to leave no
question).

By the way, I've never seen the terms peritaxis and hypotaxis in a dictionary.
 Has anyone encountered these before?  Are they used in some arcane field of
knowledge?  I've seen other words used for this concept, but can't recall what
they were.  Anyone on the list versed in Rhetoric?
Rich Julius                                     Oracle Corporation
Senior Technical Writer                         Box 659504
Decision Support Systems                        500 Oracle Parkway
(415) 506-4971                                  Redwood Shores, CA 94065

   President, Berkeley Chapter, Society for Technical Communication

"The advantage of a classical education is that it enables you to despise
 the wealth which it prevents you from achieving."  --Russell Green