Read The F***ing Story, Then RTFM

From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Hans Reiser Subject: Japanese style (aka US military style) documentation Date: Wed, 05 Jun 2002 17:24:46 +0400 Message-ID: <3CFE111E.9050806@namesys.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: multipart/mixed; boundary="------------000307030202020302070909" Return-path: list-help: list-unsubscribe: list-post: List-Id: To: beverly , Ramon Reiser , Reiserfs developers mail-list , reiserfs-list --------------000307030202020302070909 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,52901,00.html This describes our objective in the reiser4 documentation. Hans --------------000307030202020302070909 Content-Type: text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1; name="www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,52901,00.html" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Content-Disposition: inline; filename="www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,52901,00.html" Content-Base: "http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,12 84,52901,00.html" Content-Location: "http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,12 84,52901,00.html" =20 =20 =09 Read The F***ing Story, Then RTFM Michelle Delio"> =20 =20

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Today's Headlines = 2:00 a.m. June 5, 2002 PDT
Homeless Fight Club Miffs Critics Glass Is the Gas for Arch= itects ReplayTV Won't Quit, Won'= t Quit Read The F***ing Story, T= hen RTFM Getting a Kick Out of Bot= s E Is for E-Book Murder My= stery Amazon Memoir: The Oft-To= ld Story Game Controls Fit Like a = Glove Fuming Over World Cup's F= oam Ball Maine Laptop Funding Thre= atened More ...

Read The F***ing Story, Then RTFM
= By Michelle Delio

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2:00 a.m. June 4, 2002 PDT
=20 Admit it. You didn't read the f---ing manual.

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You didn't read it because you're a geek and you don't need no stinkin' m= anual. Or you didn't because you're not a geek, and the manual gave you b= rain cramps.

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See also:

3D""

•= A Challenge to Dissect Some Code

•= Software Writers Patently Enraged

•= Microsoft: A Little More 'Open'

•= Discover more Net Culture

•= Read more = Technology news

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=20 Company executives and marketing consultants say over half the calls to U= =2ES. tech support address issues that are already discussed in manuals p= rovided with products. And even though they suspect that no one in the Un= ited States has ever read an entire product manual, companies continue to= provide them because they are legally required to do so.

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But, in other countries, product manuals are read, discussed and treasure= d.=20

OK, maybe not treasured.=20

But people do RTFM ("Read the F---ing Manual," in geek code), either b= ecause they think it's the right thing to do, or because the manual conta= ins pictures of naked women or cool cartoons.

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"Japanese people really enjoy reading documentation, but that's because J= apanese documentation is actually fun to look at," explained Mike Adams o= f translation and marketing firm Arial Global Reach.

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Adams said that Japanese manuals are often jazzed up with creative cartoo= ns. Even program interfaces are festive: Microsoft's much-maligned Clippy the Paperclip is r= eplaced in Japan by an animated dolphin that Adams swears is a hoot to wo= rk with.

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"And even highly technical Japanese engineers don't feel at all childish = when they view or interact with these animations," Adams said.

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But put those cutesy characters into documentation intended for use in ot= her countries, and viewers might seriously doubt the company's seriousnes= s, experts say. That's why global marketing consultants do more than just= translate manuals; they also advise companies on the proper way to prese= nt documentation.

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Manuals intended for use in the Middle East are very similar to American = manuals. Like their American counterparts, Middle Eastern customers prefe= r instructions that are not cluttered with technical terms or long explan= ations, according to Mark Katib, general manager of Middle East Translation Services.

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Katib said a big part of his company's work involves making sure informat= ion is presented in an acceptable format and ensuring that the product's = workings are described "in a familiar manner and not in a foreign cultura= l manner."

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"Anything that touches the people's beliefs and traditions is out of ques= tion," Katib said.

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Touching Italians is fine, but you must never, ever tell them how to use = a product. You merely suggest what they might consider doing with it, acc= ording to Carmella Esposito, a former United Nations translator who now w= orks as a freelance technical support consultant.

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"We have noticed that if a manual said, 'Do not ever do this,' we would t= hen get many calls from people who had broken their machines by doing jus= t that," Esposito said. "They read the documentation and took offense to = its tone so they had an argument with the product."

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Discreet suggestions do not appear in manuals intended for most of the re= st of Europe, where the overriding preference is for formal, technical do= cumentation.

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"There is a U.S. software company that once translated its manual into Ge= rman, only to have it rejected by their local office as its tone was very= colloquial and the text included a lot of humor," recalled Tom Shapiro o= f British translation firm Rubric= =2E "You can't always do a direct translation."

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J=E1nos Kosztol=E1nyi, who translates documentation into Hungarian for IB= M, Microsoft and other technical companies, said his main focus is making= sure that companies provide do-it-yourself repair information.

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