LINFO

Best Documentation Quotations



A bug in the code is worth two in the documentation.   -- unknown

Documentation is like sex: when it is good, it is very, very good; and when it is bad, it is better than nothing.   -- Dick Brandon (?)

Don't document the program; program the document.   -- unknown

I guess it’s better to have too much information than too little. It makes the manufacturer feel good, keeps writers employed, and makes attorneys work a little harder. Besides, it gives me something to read as I'm eating those chewy white peanuts that came with my new computer.   -- Dave Glardon, writer, comedian and actor.

If a program is useful, it will have to be changed. ... If a program is useless, it will have to be documented.   -- unknown

Ink is better than the best memory.   -- Chinese proverb

Manuals just slow you down and make you feel stupid. The directions are too slow, too detailed, and use too much abstract, arcane or academic language, like 'boot up' instead of turn on the red switch in the back.   -- Neil Fiore, psychologist and executive coach

On a contract assignment, the owner of a small industrial control software company told me "We do not want our (end-user) documentation to be too clear. We make a lot of money doing training."   -- unknown

Real programmers don't comment their code, if it was hard to write, it should be hard to understand and harder to modify.   -- unknown

Real programmers don't document their programs. Documentation is for simpletons who can't read listings or the object code from dumps.   -- unknown

Rule 1 of writing software for nontechnical users is this: if they have to read documentation to use it you designed it wrong.   -- Eric S. Raymond, programmer and advocate of open source software

The best documentation is self-documenting code and an intuitive user interface.   -- a Bellevue Linux Users Group member, 2005

The documentation needs documentation.   -- a Bellevue Linux Users Group member, 2005

Voluminous documentation is part of the problem, not part of the solution.   -- Tom DeMarco, software development consultant






Created July 16, 2005.
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