TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
Re: Elegance in programming, interfaces and documents
Subject:Re: Elegance in programming, interfaces and documents From:Kees de Bondt <cbon -at- WXS -dot- NL> Date:Sat, 25 Apr 1998 08:15:57 +0200
On 23-04 Joaquim Baptista wrote:
>In programming, we usually find one of two situations:
>1) The program achieves its functionality by combining a small set
> of generic functions. Also, each function is simple and mostly
> independent of the others.
>2) The program is ridden with multiple pieces of similar but not
> identical functionality. It is hard to pinpoint where does the
> program do something.
>
>Case (1) is an elegant program, and a joy to the eye.
>Case (2) is best avoided.
>
>I find a similar difference when I compare MS-Word with ClarisWorks.
>- In MS-Word, each major function has its own interface element
> to do something.
>- In ClarisWorks, the same generic interface element will work wherever
> it makes sense.
>
The parallel structure in this piece of text indicates, you think Ms-Word
is an elegant program, while Clarisworks has to be avoided...
Am I right?
Regards
Kees de Bondt
==============================================
QUALITY BY DOCUMENTATION
AlQuin Total Quality
----------------------------------------------
Amstelveen, Home of CoBrA - NL
e-mail: cbon -at- wxs -dot- nl ph/fx +31.20.6450976 http://home.wxs.nl/~cbon/ The Quality Homepage
==============================================
