On Mon, 2008-10-20 at 16:12 +0100, Stephen Rowles wrote: > One of my pet peeves this, so I'm afraid I've got to comment :). (Oh and I > work as a Software Engineer btw).
Then of course you also know that in addition to Software Engineers, there are Technical Writers, who work with the developers, architectures, engineers, etc., and produce actually readable and coherent documentation. :) > documentation for other peoples work. Yes they can help by documenting > things as they find them out, but the person who really knows how a > feature works is the person that wrote it :) Nobody suggests that the developers and wiki volunteers exist in separate bubbles. Of course, the most ideal situation is that the developers are also very articulate and concise and have the time necessary to write documentation as well as code, but I think it's perfectly reasonable for volunteers to take on the role of Technical Writer and actively grill the developers for the appropriate information. As a developer, or even as a systems engineer (which I am during the day), I'm happy to answer questions and explain how things work in detail. However I'm at my least happiest when writing documentation. :) Mind you, I also recognize that it's often a chicken-and-egg problem. You can't have users unless _somebody_ knows how it works, and that usually starts with the developers. But once you build that momentum, there are some very capable writers out there. (Unfortunately there are some very bad ones too. So it goes.) Cheers, Jason. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- This SF.Net email is sponsored by the Moblin Your Move Developer's challenge Build the coolest Linux based applications with Moblin SDK & win great prizes Grand prize is a trip for two to an Open Source event anywhere in the world http://moblin-contest.org/redirect.php?banner_id=100&url=/ _______________________________________________ Freevo-users mailing list Freevo-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freevo-users
