Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uwm.edu!bionet!ames!sparkyfs!zwicky
From: zwicky@sparkyfs.istc.sri.com (Elizabeth Zwicky)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.postscript
Subject: Re: Automatic posting v 2
Keywords: automatic posting
Message-ID: <30250@sparkyfs.istc.sri.com>
Date: 6 Mar 90 18:13:16 GMT
References: <2879@ursa.UUCP> <18094@rpp386.cactus.org> <18096@rpp386.cactus.org>
Reply-To: zwicky@stegosaur.itstd.sri.com.UUCP (Elizabeth Zwicky)
Organization: SRI International, Menlo Park, CA 94025
Lines: 30

Personally, I think a frequently asked questions posting is a good
idea. But if it's going to be this one, it's going to need a lot more
than a few drafts. I started to write this as a brief reply, with the few
form-based comments I had on the first few answers (for instance, it
needs to be formatted to set off questions from answers; "high" needs
to be spelled "high" everywhere, and not "hi"; there's no reason to
say "the RED book" instead of "the Red Book"). Unfortunately, the
further I got, the less happy I was.

 I'm willing to write off as unneccessary quibbling my feeling that
the text is choppy. I'm not willing to write off referring to
Ultrascript PC and NeWS without mentioning what they are and what
machines they run on, or the gratuitous Adobe-bashing in that answer.
Nor am I willing to write off an answer to the question "What is EPS?"
that never actually answers the stated question! Or an answer to the
speed question which in successive paragraphs suggests one character
command abbreviations done as "\s {show} def" and then suggests using
"bind def" instead of "def".

  Writing for people who don't know the topic you're writing on is
tricky. You have to be correct, precise, and extremely explanatory.
This document needs *much* more work and thought put into it. While
Woody has provided the technical content, I don't think he has the
skills required to write it up well. I really would like to avoid
inserting myself into the middle of *any* argument in this newsgroup;
on the other hand, I'm a compulsive fixer of bad writing. If I rewrite
this sucker from scratch, am I going to find myself in the middle of a
flame war, or will it actually be useful?

	Elizabeth