Software engineers are out of focus. The focus is not the code, the focus is the end users. Great code that functions without logic (most of MSFT) is generally useless. Users should not have learn to a new vernacular nor change their logic use patterns to use a new software. Software that fails to reach users without extensive documentation is useless no matter how great it is.
Users should do the dreaming; software engineers should be limited to "making it so".
Moral to this article: anyone who can write prose can write code....
Software engineers should write
161–166 of 166 posts
Re: Software engineers should write
#162A good resource:
https://class.stanford.edu/courses/Medicine/Sci-Write/Fall20...
Re: Software engineers should write
#163I'm an English kid but I'm a Computer Science major, to. This is why I think I'm on the wrong path.
Re: Software engineers should write
#164"Even if a project doesn’t require communication"
Every project requires communication.
Re: Software engineers should write
#165Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've just completed a screen-writing course, and wrote a feature-length screenplay as part of that process, and was struck by how much like technical writing it was. A screenplay is not a story the way a novel or short story is, but rather a technical description of a story that allows the various people involved to do their jobs: http://www.tjradcliffe.com/?p=1666 Screenplay structure is so tight and formal it's alm…
Wow, fantastic work :) I agree with what you're saying... a novel is the end product, a screenplay is a blueprint. It took me 4 years to write the novel (admittedly very on and off) and ~3 months to write each of the screenplays. Hopefully my next novel will be faster. What was your experience of writing both formats in terms of time and effort?
Thanks! :-)
My novel took 5+ years of blood, sweat and re-writes.
Writing a passable screenplay took five days, about six hours a day (evenings 6 - midnight). I don't expect I'll ever sell it, but I'm as certain as anything that it's better than a lot of screenplays that have been sold.
I'm mostly a poet, and love structure. Once I understood the structure of a screenplay, it just happened. Novels in contrast are these huge unstructured messy awkward wobbling teenage flailing morasses. The lack of structure, the lack of constraint, the lack of form is something I struggled with for a long time, and while I expect my next effort won't be quite as painful, I don't ever expect it to be easy.
"Form is liberating", as the engineer's proverb goes. Novels don't have it, and are therefore much more work.
Re: Software engineers should write
#166Sure writers can write, they just dont write codes... Dont think its fair to expect them to and vice versa.