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Subject:warningisms From:Tom Little <LITTLE_TOM_H -at- OFVAX -dot- LANL -dot- GOV> Date:Thu, 12 Jan 1995 11:02:00 MDT
from Ian White:
> As I understand it, there is at least an informal heirarchy of terms
> for safety notices in user manuals, something like:
> CAUTION This could produce unwanted results, or damage data or equipment
> WARNING This could cause personal injury (or do severe damage to data
> or equipment?)
> DANGER This could kill a human being or cause serious injury.
This is similar to what we do here, except that we don't use DANGER, and WARNING
must be harm to people or the environment.
Ideally, the definitions should prevent both the overuse and the underuse of
cautions/warnings. In practice, both problems continue.
Tom Tadfor Little | "They called me
Technical Writer/Editor | 'the quiet one' because
Los Alamos National Laboratory | I just didn't have anything
little_tom_h -at- ofvax -dot- lanl -dot- gov | to say" -- George Harrison, 1987.
