*gently grabs the cheeks of all programmers to stare deeply into their eyes*

[corvidcrone@kolektiva.social]

*gently grabs the cheeks of all programmers to stare deeply into their eyes*

All I want is a dry tech manual. A boring, well indexed manual that defines every function. Not a chatbot. Not a training. Not a million "articles" that I have to search through. Not a "community forum".

My rice cooker came with one. I want one for every piece of software I have to interact with.

Go get yourself a technical writer if necessary.

I. Want. An. Instructional. Manual.

[dequbed@mastodon.chaosfield.at]

@CorvidCrone I miss the time when software came with manuals fit for knocking out your manager in case he gave you shit for still reading through the War-and-Peace-sized manual

[corvidcrone@kolektiva.social]

@dequbed

The good old days 🥲

[pela0ykuza@mastodon.la]

@CorvidCrone

[zl2tod@mastodon.online]

@CorvidCrone

With an overview, a functional description, and examples.

[firesphere@cloudisland.nz]

@zl2tod @CorvidCrone Best I can do is a video 🤮

[elala@nrw.social]

@CorvidCrone

[antimu0n@furry.engineer]

@Kay @CorvidCrone
you can update a PDF
you can update an ebook

[apples_and_pears@mastodon.world]

@CorvidCrone That's something I loved about DEC their manuals were actually helpful! Further they wrote in depth about each piece of hardware from the customer's POV and published it, freely giving copies to customers, and potential customers.

People learned what DEC hardware/software could do. Today people ask an AI to do "something.

If you want to be useful you have to know what is happening and how it's being done.

[follpvosten@karp.lol]

@CorvidCrone one more reason I like emacs

[chrisgerhard@mastodon.green]

@CorvidCrone not a bloody video. Honestly the UNIX man pages had the correct paradigm.

[gentlemantech@cyberplace.social]

@CorvidCrone not only this, but I want that manual to accurately describe the actual interface (UI or API) that your software presents.

Google GCP team, looking at you, you collection of malicious monkeys. Your documentation is *always* inaccurate. I always have to write a test iteration to discover what the permission scopes *really* are, and what actions they *really* allow. I have learned to never trust your docs, and it’s painful.

[starkrg@myside-yourside.net]

@CorvidCrone If you can't describe how to do something with text and have to resort to video links that might disappear in a couple of years, then you've made whatever it is *far* too difficult. No goddamned video tutorials that can't be easily referenced.

[robinsyl@meow.social]

@CorvidCrone DaVinci Resolve comes with a four thousand page manual

[gottox@chaos.social]

@CorvidCrone just give me a few comments in the header file, that's all I want!

[markix@blahaj.zone]

@CorvidCrone@kolektiva.social Ardour has a 119 chapter manual and it's so peak ​​

[juliarez@chaos.social]

@CorvidCrone

Testify!

The two best tech manuals I can think of were the service docs for the BBC micro and the Philips KT3 television chassis.

Modulo the early O'Reilly books, Droms & Lemon, and perhaps the Continuous Delivery book, everything else has been a bit awful.

[jandi@mastodon.social]

@CorvidCrone Do you need a Linux distro? https://mxlinux.org/manuals/

[fbarton@infosec.exchange]

@CorvidCrone Can I add one more qualifier please?

I want it to be accurate!

I can't start to count the number of "fully documented" APIs that I've dealt with where I end up sending in corrections because the documentation is missing critical information

[jeffbronks@c.im]

@JuliaRez @CorvidCrone
BBC Micro docs in general were superb. Partly what inspired me to become a Tech Author.

##bbcmicro #techwriting