On 09/05/2012 06:07 AM, Rich Shepard wrote: > Two truisms that might actually be true are that scientists make poor > programmers (see old FORTRAN code) and that programmers can't write > good documentation. The latter may come from being too close to the > application. There's no reason why any of us cannot clean up and > clarify documentation for any open source tool ... including the OS. > I've done this on several of the critical applications I use (e.g., > LyX, GRASS) and no one's offended by my offerings. Unfortunately, poor > writing skills are endemic in the broader business world, too. And > let's not go into the results of our local school systems ...
In my transcription work I find many occasions where there is evidence of change in spoken English (I think that's how John would think of it -- I think of it as people who don't know the correct usage). For example, it appears that the article "an" is no long used by many people. And the understanding of when to use "take" versus "bring" seems to have been lost. I suspect this general change in spoken English is contributing to the quality issue in written documentation. When I have some free time, I'd consider contributing some of it to a documentation editing effort. Is there a proper way to do this? Does it vary from program to program? Does one simply take some sentences that should be shot and rehabilitate them and offer them to the keeper of the documentation? And how does one find out who the keeper of the documentation is? -- Regards, Dick Steffens _______________________________________________ PLUG mailing list [email protected] http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
