On Thursday 26 April 2007, Tim wrote: >Gene: >>> But I have to ask again, where in tuncket are the docs on this stuff? > >Ed Greshko: >> Dare I say this is "normal"? Speaking in generalities, developers don't >> enjoy doing documentation. Also, generally speaking, developers make poor >> documenters. >> >> I worked for a company that transitioned from a hardware company to more >> of an integration and software company. The demographics of the company >> remained largely the same. i.e. Mostly engineers and techies. The >> result, good software, horrendous documentation. And, these folks were >> paid. > >Sounds like they need to, also, employ someone who used to be a teacher. >Someone who's used to the idea of having to train, as the main thing >that they do. On the face of it, that is a good idea. Till that old saw about "those who can't do, teach" comes crawling up out of the back of my mind, having had it quite amply demonstrated in my nearly 57 years of chasing electrons for a living. The other corollary to that is that those who can do, and then try to teach, have a hell of a time trying to reduce the language to something that actually works for TV-101 classes. We can get so far over their heads just discussing a physical phenom in a klystron amplifier caused by the relativistic speed of the electron beam and the fact that the mode of amplification there is beam velocity, not amplitude. The net effect is that the tube seems to be longer at the higher power levels. Now, think about the cause of all the sync spikes coming out of an analog uhf transmitter that used those amplifiers, and how many times has the GM asked engineering to 'fix' the sync buzz. Very very difficult to compensate for with the tools we have. And now largely a thing of the past to a measureable degree because the klystron's several grand a month power bill has made it certain that the minute a more efficient power device is invented, a hundred million dollars worth of transmitters will be replaced as fast as the makers can build them. There are a few reading this list who will know what I just wrote, but I dare say that 99% of the readers will just say huh? and ignore me. I lost their attention at 'relativistic'. But, Albert Einstein was right, so we DO have to pay attention to the man behind the curtain who is really running the show. :-) >-- >(This box runs FC6, my others run FC4 & FC5, in case that's > important to the thread.) > >Don't send private replies to my address, the mailbox is ignored. >I read messages from the public lists. -- Cheers, Gene "There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order." -Ed Howdershelt (Author) Think honk if you're a telepath.
