Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!ncrlnk!ncr-sd!hp-sdd!ucsdhub!sdcsvax!trantor.harris-atd.com!melmac!chuck
From: chuck@melmac.harris-atd.com (Chuck Musciano)
Newsgroups: comp.text.desktop
Subject: Re: Typography--Was Re: ventura
Message-ID: <2178@trantor.harris-atd.com>
Date: 7 Jun 89 13:05:31 GMT
References: <2733@portia.Stanford.EDU> <4065@uhccux.uhcc.hawaii.edu>
Sender: news@trantor.harris-atd.com
Reply-To: chuck@trantor.harris-atd.com (Chuck Musciano)
Organization: Advanced Technology Dept., Harris Corp., Melbourne, Fl.
Lines: 39

In article <4065@uhccux.uhcc.hawaii.edu> lee@uhccux.uhcc.hawaii.edu (Greg Lee) writes:
>So who said programming was a science?
>
>From the perspective of an amateur at both (me), programming and
>computer typesetting (not book design) are good parallels.  An amateur
>can reasonably expect to rival a professional in a limited domain of
>interest, but will not be so facile or able to articulate what he does
>or what needs to be done.

     I would place both programming and document design in the same category:
they are both an art.  Anyone can try to learn the basics of either, but only
a few people, with some in-born talent, will be good at either of them.  In
the same way that good book designers blanch and retch when they see some
terrible book, I gag and choke when I see bad code.

     I am co-editor of a newsletter here at Harris.  I know that my skills
at design and layout are middling.  On the floor below me is a real-life
artist.  We are always taking things to her and asking her opinion.  I am
always looking for advice from more experienced people.  Whenever I find a
dcoument I like or dislike, I try to determine what it is about the document
that caught my fancy.  I then try to apply the idea to documents that I
create.

     While this is somewhat off-subject, it has long been my contention that
not everyone is cut out to program, and that frankly, they should leave the
job to someone more suited.  At some point in any endeavor, you need to know
when to give up and turn to more capable people.  My standard rule of thumb
is that I won't try to fix the pipes in my house, if my plumber won't try
to write code.  Although I own a monkey wrench, I wouldn't dream of, say,
putting in a new shower stall.  In the same way, when you are producing a
document, at some point you need to punt and turn to someone else.

     Wasn't it Shakespeare who said "A copy of Ventura doth not a book 
designer make"?

Chuck Musciano			ARPA  : chuck@trantor.harris-atd.com
Harris Corporation 		Usenet: ...!uunet!x102a!trantor!chuck
PO Box 37, MS 3A/1912		AT&T  : (407) 727-6131
Melbourne, FL 32902		FAX   : (407) 727-{5118,5227,4004}