Interesting Articles

• Here’s a review of the original Macintosh, done in 1984. It’s amazing to read this now with 25 years of perspective and realize both how different it was and how similarly things still work today. But even back then some people seemed to “get it”.
  
  When LabVIEW was first released in 1986, it was for the Mac, because that was the dominant graphical platform of the day, and LabVIEW is and has always been a graphical language. Makes sense to me. (We actually have a couple LabVIEW R&D members who’ve been around since version 1.0 – if you came to NIWeek in 2006, you saw them present onstage.) It wasn’t until 1992 that the first Windows version appeared.
• Learn information better by getting it wrong first. This is an interesting idea, and it makes sense to me. Answers are always better when they come from within. Here in LV R&D we encourage tech writers to find answers to their problems (given the proper resources) before asking others for help. This often involves getting it wrong. But even outwardly, I employed this concept when I designed the Statechart Module Getting Started tutorial. How? I instructed users to build a broken statechart – and then try and run it. The idea is that the resulting error would serve as a sort of opposite-approach to good statechart design – e.g., here’s what not to do. It also gets users familiar with the error-reporting mechanism in the software and one of the key rules of statechart development.
  
  I guess the challenge is that if you fail too much it becomes frustrating and demotivating, so there’s a fine line to walk. We certainly don’t make a habit of publishing documentation that leads to failure :-)
  
  
  

NIWeek 2007

NIWeek 2007 starts next Tuesday, August 7th at the Austin Convention Center! This year, instead of simply attending, I'm giving a presentation! Here's the info:

Date / Time: Wednesday August 8th, 3:30 PM. Room 16A.
Title: Documentation Dividends: Help that Pays Off
Abstract: Well-planned product documentation can save time, reduce customer frustration, and improve your product’s reputation. Discover how LabVIEW can help you create and deliver effective documentation. Also learn tips from NI technical writers about optimizing the documentation process and getting the most out of documentation on LabVIEW.

Come learn how documentation can improve your product. We'll also discuss tips for planning and creating documentation and the different ways in which you can deliver documentation.

I invite you all to attend, and if you have any questions or comments for me, I'll be happy to answer them at the session.