Re: Programming vs. Technical Writing

["Engstrom, Douglas D." <EngstromDD -at- PHIBRED -dot- COM>]

This is written in reply to the following exchange:

"Collins, Darren DA" writes:
>
> I don't know why, but I also find that
> among all but the best programmers terrible spelling seems to be an
> occupational prerequisite.

"Linda K. Sherman" <linsherm -at- GTE -dot- NET> replies:

Two possible explanations.
(1) One of the things that makes the best programmers best is their
attention to detail and their passion for correctness. (Perfectionism
and its well-known side-effects are a common downside of being a good
programmer).

(2) A lot of spelling errors in program comments are probably typos.
Many programmers are lousy typists. The compiler will of course catch
spelling errors in the program itself, but it ignores comments.

Linda:

I'd like to suggest a third, simpler explanation.  If you spend your day
staring at a screen covered with creations like: "tblCollObj",
"LSTNAMES", "fMveLocs" and the other contortions programmers go through
to create variable, procedure and function names that are both
descriptive and something you don't mind typing 40 times a day, your
sense of what "looks right" deteriorates pretty dramatically.

That was definitely true for me; during my two semesters of COBOL,
spelling became much more difficult. I suspect that the best programmers
may be able to "shift gears" more readily.

Skoal,

Doug Engstrom
engstromdd -at- phibred -dot- com

"Now, you know a refuge never grows from
 a chin on a hand and a thoughtful pose,
 got to tend the Earth if you want a rose."

                  -- The Indigo Girls

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