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Subject:Re: Making up user names From:"Mark L. Levinson" <mark -at- MEMCO -dot- CO -dot- IL> Date:Tue, 24 Sep 1996 15:37:06 +0200
Whimsy is dangerous. We all know people who have less talent for
it than they think. Whimsy can get out of hand, distracting from
the essential content of the documentation. And it must be
infuriating to read a manual where the writer seems not to have
found the time to get the facts straight but expects you to giggle
along as you read.
Another problem with obviously artificial names is that they make
the product look like a lab prototype. For credibility's sake, an
example should look exactly like something that would be seen in
the field. (Filenames are an issue too. You don't want an
illustration with a filename like /development/beta/myfile.)
The idea of writers using their own names also makes me uneasy.
There are typically anywhere between eight and eighty developers
per writer, right? Suppose those developers all decided to sneak
little Kilroy messages of their own into the product...
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- Mark L. Levinson - Memco Software - PO Box 58161 - 61581 Tel Aviv
- work: mark -at- memco -dot- co -dot- il / tel. 03-6487415 ext. 47 / fax 03-6487414
- home: nosnivel -at- netvision -dot- net -dot- il / tel. 09-552411 or 09-555720
