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> Wayne Douglass wrote:
> >
> > ... the Adaptec SW for burning CDs is absurdly easy to use -
> > if you know what you want to do in the first place.
> >
> > Average bozos who don't know a hybrid CD from ISO 9660 might be
> > in trouble if they don't know what they want to do.
> >
> > ... average bozos need some context to help them understand why
> > they would want to burn one kind of CD rather than another.
>
> Wow! Does anyone else find this sequence of statements even the
> slightest bit troubling?
>
> --David
< end of snipping >
Yes, I do. Not to flame Wayne, but one of the challenges of
producing documentation is to reach all levels of your audience - the
informed user in addition to the "average" or uninformed user. User
documentation that comes with a product should tell us what we need to
know to make that product perform the function we bought it for - not
more, not less. In another post Wayne mentioned his time spent teaching,
and I think that the same expectation applies. I used to teach writing
courses, and I had to make sure that, even though students wrote at
different levels of proficiency, the course had something for everyone
to learn. Since I am an "average" user of a lot of stuff, I both need
and I appreciate adequate instructions about how to use what I purchase.
