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Re: Documentation size and ease-of-use (of documentation)
Subject:Re: Documentation size and ease-of-use (of documentation) From:"Steven J. Owens" <puff -at- netcom -dot- com> To:mmarques -at- cms400 -dot- com Date:Tue, 21 Sep 1999 09:36:07 -0700 (PDT)
Michele Marques writes:
> My favourite large set of documentation was for SAS (statistical
> package). At least at one point, the documentation included a 2-volume
> user guide (which included basic common procedures), many reference
> volumes, and an index volume. The reference volumes were divided into
> related functions (and alphabetically within volume or between volumes
> on the same theme). The reference volumes were consistent, and it was
> easy to locate information.
Funny you should mention SAS. I just spent an hour or so, last
week, consoling a friend who's undergoing her first, painful encounter
with SAS, upon starting college 10 years after graduating from high
school. Prior to this, my only direct experience with SAS was when I
worked in the (same) college computer labs, among other things
checking out SAS manuals for psych students (the intro psych course
include basic statistics). I always got the impression it was a
fairly excruciating manual set, but then again, a large part of that
may have been due to outdated or out-of-sync documentation.
