Date: Wed, 4 Nov 1998 18:50:11 +0000 (GMT) From: Terry Lambert <tlambert@primenet.com> To: ziggy@wopr.inetu.net (Ryan Ziegler) Cc: freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG, tlambert@primenet.com Subject: Re: Documentation upgrade: where are the other humans? Message-ID: <199811041850.LAA10454@usr07.primenet.com> In-Reply-To: <Pine.BSF.3.95q.981103164412.12402B-100000@wopr.inetu.net> from "Ryan Ziegler" at Nov 3, 98 04:53:01 pm
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> > You know, I've often wondered why, given that there are people > > who will code for the fun of it, why none of the Free Software > > projects have crossed disciplines. > > > > You'd think that there would be English Majors and/or Technical > > Writers who would write documentation for the fun of it, and > > Marketing people who would do marketing for the fun of it, and > > Graphic Artists who would do commercial art for the fun of it... > > When not getting paid, programmers tend to code what they find > interesting. We can say the same thing for writers when writing. I would > say technical documentation is not the most exciting literary form, nor > are the arguments for kmem_free() the most exciting subject matter. > > What we need are technical writers who feel a severe allegiance to > FreeBSD. Or people who get off on techinical writing, or a professor with an allegiance to FreeBSD in charge of a Technical Writing class. I have to say that there exist people who actually enjoy doing things that the rest of us would find about as enjoyable as home dentistry (those of you with capped teeth, imagine removing your caps with an awl). I have a sister who happens to enjoy double-column bookkeeping. It takes all kinds... I also think that it's very likely that someone who had to take a technical writing class for their CS/CIS/MIS/BIS degree would have classmates who were English Majors or whatever, also looking for writing projects, and that it would be a good idea to encourage them suggesting FreeBSD documentation to their classmates as a potential "project fodder gold mine". I know that if I were to adjunct teach a technical writing class, I'd be please as punch if I could find a never-ending supply of projects, all in the same general problem space; it'd make it a hell of a lot easier to grade on a curve. > > Are programmers the only people who enjoy what they intend to make > > their life's work? > > No, but if you enjoy programming, society definately rewards. Only if you don't suck. 8-). > > Maybe it's just that the majority of people are too busy sitting > > on their butts hacking code in cave-like computer labs to talk > > to people in other departments on campus? > > You're not suggesting that we're a tad clannish, are you? :) Well, this *is* a "free software" project, not a "free product" project... it's kind of self-limiting in its involvement of people not that interested in producing software. The Linux Documentation project has that whole "Young Communist" thing going for it... Terry Lambert terry@lambert.org --- Any opinions in this posting are my own and not those of my present or previous employers. To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-hackers" in the body of the message
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