documents team,
please forgive at the outset that i have a broken shift function, and
that this will be a draft. still, i think it will be clear enough that
you'll understand.
the purpose of this email is to show how to distinguish lyx as the
latest and greatest way to prepare documents, and to present word
processors as being archaic, legacy, outdated, whatever term you like,
or not to mention them at all.
to begin, i have both good news and bad. the good news is that lyx
help documents are some of the best technical writing i've ever seen,
and i've seen lots. the writers have cut through the garbage and made
the difficult seem like child's play. the bad news is that there is
almost no sense of salesmanship in these same documents. the web site
appears to be in much better shape with respect to that.
consider that i am a new pair of eyes looking at these documents for
the first time. i'm standing away and examining the product whereas
the writers may be too close to see the problem.
the introduction as selected from the lyx help menu begins with a joke
comparing word processors to food processors. the implication is that
word processors are bad things. in the first subsection of chapter 1
of that same document, the first sentence distinguishes lyx as a
document preparation system. the implication is that lyx is different
from word processors and that this is a good thing. beyond those
initial statements, there is much confusion. i keep seeing headings or
statements such as, "the difference between lyx and other word
processors is blah blah blah". stop. or statements like, "lyx is
better than other word processors because blah blah blah". stop. do you
see what's wrong with these statements? the problem is that they can
be interpreted to mean that lyx also is a word processor. in fact,
that's the most probable way to interpret them. it would be good to
remove the word 'other', and i'm sure you understand that doing so
would allow lyx to retain its separation from word processors. but,
that is a quick fix. i have a better solution to present later. for
now, consider that the reader is confused. she is thinking, "is lyx a
word processor too? or is it a document preparation system? perhaps
'document preparation system' is just a fancy name for word
processor". you do not want her wondering about what lyx is. she
already owns a word processor. she paid 900 bucks for it, and if lyx is
just another word processor and it's free, she thinks lyx can't
possibly be as good as the one she just paid 900 bucks for. there's a
problem of ego too. if you just spent 900 bucks for a product, and
then you found 'the same product' that is better and is free, how is
that going to make you feel? you know the answer. her ego is not
going to allow her to believe that lyx is better. she's not even going
to look at it. that is, unless you can make her realize that lyx is
not 'the same product'. now her ego is not going to bother her quite
as much. besides, she can sell her 900 buck word processor on ebay and
recover much of her loss, if lyx really is better.
lyx can't afford to lose its identity as 'the world's first document
preparation system', nor the concept that lyx is the latest and
greatest. why not? that's your big advantage. there are already a
gazillion word processors out there. lyx does not want to compete with
any of them in a head on battle. lyx would lose. they've got a
gazillion dollars to advertise, and lyx has none.
i think by now you understand. the trouble is that your three main
help documents, the intro, tutorial, and user's guide all are rife with
this problem. and there are other problems. i recall seeing a
statement something like this: the eight basic functions of any word
processor are blah blah blah. why does the user care what the eight
basic functions of any word processor are if lyx isn't one? again, the
quick fix is obvious. there are many other examples of this. the
reader is even asked to type in some of these statements. and then
there's a footnote in the introduction that begins something like, 'to
be fair, most recent versions of the most popular office suites now
have some sort of style sheets, but in practice they are rarely used.'
at first glance, this seems good. it gives lyx an appearance of being
honest and credible. but, whoever wrote this stopped short of taking
full advantage. they could have added, "why do you think these office
suites added style sheets? they have to pay for those additions to
their software. they wouldn't be copying lyx unless it is a great
idea. we built ours in from the beginning. they had to bloat their
software and add style sheets as an afterthought."
you've got the picture. as promised earlier, my suggestion for a
better solution is this: take the high ground and completely remove
all references to 'word processors', including the joke. compare lyx
to 'legacy' or 'outdated' or 'last generation' systems if you must, but
i certainly think you're better off never using the term 'word
processor' at all. you say, 'but how can we do this?' you can do this
because anybody using lyx already knows about word processors, - or
they don't. if it's the first case, you describe how lyx works and
allow them to discover the similarities so that they can say to their
delight, 'hey, i know how this works!' which will encourage them to go
further. if it's the second case and they don't have a clue about word
processors, all you'll do is add to the confusion if you write about
word processors. instead, stay focused and write about why lyx is the
latest and greatest.
from reading some of the lyx material, i suspect that some of you have
read the essay written by professor allin cottrell of wake forest
university in south carolina, usa entitled, 'word processors - stupid
and inefficient'. sorry, i don't have the url convenient. but, should
you want to read it, just put 'stupid word processors' into your
search engine and you'll get it. in the section or chapter (i forget
which) titled, 'the virtues of ascii', he makes reference to a link
written by sam steinberg entitled 'no more proprietary binary formats',
or something similar. sam's page has a link to lyx. that's how i
discovered lyx. although professor cottrell is basically promoting
latex, that's not a bad thing since lyx is a layer on top of latex. the
more latex users, the more lyx users. if you haven't seen these links,
you may find they'll add more ammunition to your arsenal.
enough. i'm nowhere near as expert as you in a technical respect. but
i would not mind giving a try at a rewrite using the existing technical
material. there's a catch. isn't there always? i have prior
commitments for about the next 70 to 90 days. if you can wait till
early next year, i volunteer. if not, take my ideas and run with them.
they are freely given. or trash them if you think they're garbage.
you should be aware that if i do a rewrite, i may still need someone to
come behind me to fix the upper case function as it doesn't seem likely
i'll be able to get that repaired. no need to reply unless you would
like my help.
regards,
jim solley
|
