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Questions tagged [writing]

According to Wikipedia, writing is a medium of communication that represents language through the inscription of signs and symbols.

According to Wikipedia, writing is a medium of communication that represents language through the inscription of signs and symbols. In most languages, writing is a complement to speech or spoken language.

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How do you write technical blogs?

I usually read a lot about programming related stuff. When the topic I read is not related to my work directly ,(say reading about some Algorithms which I don't use in everyday work), I forget them. One way to reinforce what has been learnt is to…
Vinoth Kumar C M
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What grammatical tense should I write my specifications in?

We are currently writing functional and technical specifications in a two column format; summary sentence and technical detail. The details often refer to an appendix with diagrams, layout designs ect. However I am struggling with what tense to…
John
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How do I write a functional specification quickly and efficiently

So I just read some fabulous articles by Joel on specs here. (Was written in 2000!!) I read all 4 parts, but I'm looking for some methodical approaches to writing my specs. I'm the only lonely dev, working on this fairly complicated app (or family…
gideon
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Do poor writers make poor programmers?

I'm reading Coders at Work by Peter Seibel, and many a time it has been mentioned that programmers who can't write generally make poor programmers - it's been claimed by Douglas Crockford, Joshua Bloch, Joe Armstrong, Dijkstra (and I've only read…
gablin
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How do you keep emails short but complete?

I'm the odd kind of developer that likes writing and explaining - emails, specs, you name it. I enjoy helping people understand things deeply. I hate ping-pong communications where groups go through 30 or 40 emails, phone calls and meetings because…
nlawalker
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Write a directory structure (pseudo code)

I am writing a wiki article and wondering what is the proper way to write a directory scheme? I am doing something like main folder - sub folder - sub folder ... But I'm stuck after that. Any help?
Steven
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Programming in other writing systems such as those who write right-to-left

How do programmers in countries whose writing system is, say, right-to-left write their code? Say if they were using C# compiler, do they follow the left-to-right approach or do they have a different IDE that allows them write C# code right-to-left?
Julius A
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What writing rules are different for humans and code?

It seems that some rules of writing code are in direct contradiction with the rules of human writing. For example in code it's advisable to define each piece of information in only one place and in writing for humans it's normal to repeat important…
C. Ross
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Common Methodologies for Writing "Post-Mortem" Reviews

We recently added a relatively large feature to our product that involved the entire R&D department (with all the different teams within it). This feature included UI development, server side development, and huge migrations of SQL schemes (and…
Tudmotu
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Is it unreasonable to write user documentation in the style of a technical book?

Tell me if this sounds familiar: something something something... as seen in figure 1-1 on the next page... It's in practically every book I've ever read about programming. So when I was writing a small instructional booklet on how to use some…
Steven Evers
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Does long term programming affect writing in a native spoken languages?

So, I am getting some years under my belt in long term programming. I have noticed, however, when the frequency and duration started increasing in my coding sessions that when I actually went to write a paper, email, document, or anything else that…
Chad Harrison
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What is the best toolkit for writing long technical texts?

I'm looking for a toolkit in the form of one or a couple of applications that can be used to write long technical texts (such as an introduction to a programming language). What applications (or combination of) are suitable for this? How should…
thr
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Where can I find examples of functional specifications?

I am writing a functional specification for a software program (Mac OS X application to be exact). I want to improve this by looking at other (good) functional specifications, but I cannot find any. Are there any (open-source) projects that have…
user4595
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What is a good rule of thumb to do technical writing that doesn't confuse people

Sometimes I'm such a nerd that not even nerds understand me, or rather, sometimes I cannot put stuff in understandable and simple-enough terms... and sometimes I can but cannot really tell until after. I like the details on technical stuff, I enjoy…
dukeofgaming
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Run On Sentences in Technical Writing

This is just a question to think about. When you write technical documentation and programming comments, do you ever find yourself writing run-on sentences in order to be more precise? Is packing more technical information into one sentence better…
Sean Noodleson Neilan
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