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Wow - has anyone read the "What's Up, Docs?" article in the Aug. '98
Windows Magazine?
Written by Fred Langa, the article is subtitled, "Is it me, or has the
quality of documentation taken a dive?".
In the article, Langa discusses the poor documentation that accompanied
a new CD writer he purchased. He mentions how skimpy the documentation
was (half of a 8.5 x 11 sheet of paper) for a fairly complicated SW
module that accompanied the CD writer and wonders why the vendor (a very
well-known name in the PC peripherals world) didn't include more
detailed docs. He understands the desire to keep printing costs down,
but doesn't understand why more complete documentation wasn't included
on the CD containing the SW module (especially since the SW took up only
1% of the CD).
Langa also mentions that he asked visitors to the Windows magazine
discussion area for comments regarding documentation. He printed some of
the responses in the magazine article. You can view the comments at http://www.winmag.com/bbs/columns/archives/042698/monday/index.htm.
Food for thought, folks...
Chris Welch-Hutchings
Senior Technical Writer
Home Wireless Networks, Inc. mailto:cwhutchings -at- homewireless -dot- com
