From: "Drew Adams" <drew.adams@oracle.com>
To: "'Andreas Schwab'" <schwab@suse.de>
Cc: bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org
Subject: RE: doc string of dired-do-kill-lines, "killing" lines in Dired
Date: Wed, 5 Mar 2008 07:53:59 -0800 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <001e01c87ed9$20d7b670$0600a8c0@us.oracle.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <jepru9qjfb.fsf@sykes.suse.de>
> > If something can be misunderstood, it will be.
>
> There are two ways to read documentation: trying to find the worst
> possible interpretation and trying to find the best possible
> interpretation.
Yes, and the writer should always read it trying to find the worst possible
interpretation. That is the burden you need to assume, if you want to
communicate.
Why? Because that is how you improve communication. Progress comes through
contradiction.
If you as a writer read only what you intended to say, and not what you
actually wrote, with all of its reasonable possible interpretations, then
you are not putting yourself in the place of the reader. And you write _for
the reader_.
This is no different from writing code. The reader is your compiler or
interpreter: it is s?he who lets you know if what you wrote makes sense.
next prev parent reply other threads:[~2008-03-05 15:53 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 13+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2008-03-05 0:01 doc string of dired-do-kill-lines, "killing" lines in Dired Drew Adams
2008-03-05 0:53 ` Andreas Schwab
2008-03-05 3:19 ` Drew Adams
2008-03-05 10:18 ` Andreas Schwab
2008-03-05 15:13 ` Drew Adams
2008-03-05 15:28 ` Andreas Schwab
2008-03-05 15:53 ` Drew Adams [this message]
2008-03-07 3:37 ` Richard Stallman
2008-03-07 4:06 ` Drew Adams
2008-03-08 17:39 ` Richard Stallman
2008-03-08 21:09 ` Drew Adams
2008-03-09 16:39 ` Richard Stallman
2008-03-09 16:54 ` Drew Adams
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