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Ask HN: Examples of good technical writing?

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Re: Ask HN: Examples of good technical writing?

#91

Post by t7893478134 »

midenginedcoupe wrote: post #89
wunderlust wrote: post #88

It’s a stretch but I’d say a lot of modern analytical philosophy could be considered “technical” in the sense that the convention is to articulate ideas and arguments as clearly and precisely as possible. My recommendations would be Hilary Putnam, Nelson Goodman, and W.V.O Quine. A paper I’m currently reading, which was seminal in phenomenology, is “ The Phenomenology of Cognition: Or What Is It Like to Think That P?…

Flippin' eck, I've just tried reading the opening sentence: > A number of philosophers endorse, without argument, the view that there’s something it’s like consciously to think that p, which is distinct from what it’s like consciously to think that q. I've re-read it umpteen times and by brain still refuses to parse it. This is not, IMHO, articulating anything clearly or precisely.

For a start there is an implicit assumption that p does not equal q. If you are going to use variables (instead of 'something' and 'something else') then you should use them precisely.

Re: Ask HN: Examples of good technical writing?

#92

Post by tuxie_ »

KineticLensman wrote: post #19
onychomys wrote: post #4

D'arcy Wentworth Thompson wrote what is widely considered to be the most beautiful book in biology, and thankfully he wrote it long enough ago that it's now in the public domain. Every sentence is like a little poem. https://gutenberg.org/ebooks/55264

This is an interesting recommendation. I scanned several sections and agree that the writing style is pleasing. But as an example of good technical writing in general, I don't think it holds up so well. The style is extremely discursive and there is little structure except for the chapters, many of which are 50 page monoliths. So to me it's more like a work of literature that you take at the author's pace, not a usef…

> This is an interesting recommendation. I scanned several sections and agree that the writing style is pleasing.

> I like texts that read well and gradually unfold into a deeper understanding of their subject matter

Sounds good! Will check it out.

Edit: formatting.

Re: Ask HN: Examples of good technical writing?

#94

Post by blep_ »

midenginedcoupe wrote: post #89
wunderlust wrote: post #88

It’s a stretch but I’d say a lot of modern analytical philosophy could be considered “technical” in the sense that the convention is to articulate ideas and arguments as clearly and precisely as possible. My recommendations would be Hilary Putnam, Nelson Goodman, and W.V.O Quine. A paper I’m currently reading, which was seminal in phenomenology, is “ The Phenomenology of Cognition: Or What Is It Like to Think That P?…

Flippin' eck, I've just tried reading the opening sentence: > A number of philosophers endorse, without argument, the view that there’s something it’s like consciously to think that p, which is distinct from what it’s like consciously to think that q. I've re-read it umpteen times and by brain still refuses to parse it. This is not, IMHO, articulating anything clearly or precisely.

Ah, another victim of the nonsense "rule" against infinitive splitting. It gets somewhat clearer if you rewrite both occurrences of "consciously to think" to "to consciously think".

The other part is the "there is something that it's like to" thing, which is kind of a set phrase/idiom in philosophy, meaning "this is a thing that can be experienced". Sentience is often defined that way: there is something, even if you can't describe it any more precisely, that is "this is what it's like to be a human", but not "this is what it's like to be a rock".

(This comment is intended as an explanation of that mess of a sentence, not a defense of it.)

Re: Ask HN: Examples of good technical writing?

#96

Post by wheybags »

"The old new thing" blog by Raymond Chen at Microsoft: https://devblogs.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/

Random good example post: https://devblogs.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/20220328-00/?p=10...

To me, it's representative of all the good bits of Microsoft, now, and also in the past. I wish they had more Raymond Chens, and less... whoever it is driving their focus on crappy adware, telemetry, bad "modernized ux", user hostile behaviour in general.

Re: Ask HN: Examples of good technical writing?

#97

Post by weinzierl »

mikewarot wrote: post #60

I think the Turbo Pascal 3.0 manual[1] was one of the best printed manuals I ever owned. It alone was worth the price of the compiler. One of the most complete (and useful!) books about an area of study I've found is The Art of Electronics[2] by Horowitz and Hill. They point out all the traps that are likely to be encountered by an engineer working with the components as they describe them, along with the various tra…

The context sensitive help in Turbo Pascal was also awesome.

Re: Ask HN: Examples of good technical writing?

#98

Post by tptacek »

randcraw wrote: post #82

Anything by Bill Bryson, but especially “At Home” and “One Summer: America, 1927”. Both are brilliant. “John Adams” by David McCullough. Possibly the best historical bio ever. “The Making of the Atomic Bomb” by Richard Rhodes. The best recounting of the founding of Los Alamos. “Hackers” by Steven Levy. The best book on the birth of creatine coding. “The Soul of a New Machine” by Tracy Kidder. The best tale of hardwar…

Raymond's "Cathedral" post is a contender for one of the most overrated pieces of technical writing. "The parts that are interesting are not new, and the parts that are new aren't good". It's justifiably infamous for the now-discredited "Linus's law", about "many eyes making all bugs shallow", but large parts of it are also shoplifted from Brooks and Pike.

I think it's remembered fondly mostly because it was an effective bit of advocacy written during a time period people view fondly.

Re: Ask HN: Examples of good technical writing?

#100

Post by charlieflowers »

ImageXav wrote: post #69

Code: The Hidden Language of Computer Hardware and Software by Charles Petzold is an excellent work that very clearly guides the reader through the components and steps that lead to the sophisticated computer systems we have nowadays. Each step is explained with no logical leaps and could be followed by a young child. Improving almost anything by George Box blew my mind. As children and even as university students we…

What’s the george box reference? Sounds interesting.
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