You might even get technical writers to contribute. Presumably they would do so for many of the same reasons as the hackers contribute code. (Except that NOBODY thinks technical writing is fun.
I dunno. It might be fun to be able document a project in an area one is interested in, if (1) one were independently wealthy and did not have to make a living off technical writing and (2) there were no deadline pressure to meet an impossible (or at least unrealistic) "ship by" date determined by marketers who have no idea that one manual, much less the entire set of manuals for a new system, cannot be written by one tech writer hired for the project a week before the shipping date. Hire two tech writers and give them a month, and maybe you will get *something* you can photocopy and send out, but it better be stamped "PRELIMINARY DRAFT" on every page . . . assuming it's a hardware setup/maintenance manual or a manual for your version of a recognized programming language that can be "written" by cribbing large portions from pre-existing publications. When it comes to the documentation for a new OS, though, you're going to need to hire a tech writer who already knows something about computers (so he can at least talk with programmers in their language) and give him several months and virtually limitless access to the programmers who are writing the OS in order to get even a first version that is even marginally usable. (And I won't even make reference here to "The Mythical Man-Month" again.)
BT, DT Maru
-- Ronn! :)
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