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>Robert Plamondon wrote
>
>> In either case, the miscreant never tells the engineer who
>>receives the document that he's not supposed to have it, so the
>>engineer cheerfully sends in the card requesting the entirely fictitious
>>additional information that I've dangled in front of him.
>
>What about the engineer who _is_ supposed to have the document? How does
>she feel when she requests information that is offerred but not
>available?
Well, I've never done a survey, but I think that few engineers REALLY
expect applications manuals or programming guides to be available at
the time of the "Draft" or "Advance Data" chip documentation. But people
send in the cards as an expression of optimism, hoping to get a copy of
whatever might already exist, or to get the full lineup when it becomes
available.
Also, I never have to strain my brain to come up with fictitious documents.
Such things always appear on Marketing's requirements list until the
time comes for them to be funded and supported, at which point they
are suddenly deemed unnecessary.. This little drama inevitably played
itself out between the super-secret versions of the data book and the
semi-public "Preliminary Data" version, so everything dovetailed nicely.
Of course, if a miracle happened and we were actually allowed to create
all the documents on the list, that was okay too.
-- Robert
--
Robert Plamondon, High-Tech Technical Writing, Inc.
36475 Norton Creek Road * Blodgett * Oregon * 97326
robert -at- plamondon -dot- com * (541) 453-5841 * Fax: (541) 453-4139
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