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   Lesley Lai (lesley@mastodon.gamedev.place)'s status on Thursday, 19-Dec-2024 00:22:07 JST Lesley Lai

   I’d appreciate it if tech writers use fewer words like "easy," "simple," and "straightforward." These terms provide no real information and can only make readers feel stupid when something doesn’t seem as easy as claimed

   • Embed this notice
     Ax=b (melissawm@pynews.com.br)'s status on Thursday, 19-Dec-2024 00:22:06 JST Ax=b

     in reply to

     @lesley I have learned this from the Carpentries https://carpentries.org

     Never say "Just do this..", "It is easy to see that..." but more importantly, I remember from being a math student how frustrating it was to find the dreaded "It is trivial..."

   • Embed this notice
     alcinnz (alcinnz@floss.social)'s status on Thursday, 19-Dec-2024 05:50:48 JST alcinnz

     in reply to

     @lesley When I use terms like these its specifically about how much effort/code it takes the computer to do it, I sometimes find them handy when describing that.

     I strive never to use them to describe how much effort/skill it takes humans!

     I avoid words like "complex" too! I want my readers to judge that for themselves!

   • Embed this notice
     Ed Davies (edavies@functional.cafe)'s status on Thursday, 19-Dec-2024 05:51:53 JST Ed Davies

     in reply to

     • Greg Wilson
     • Victor Zambrano

     @argonaut @lesley @gvwilson Especially not text.

     Character set. Encoding. Line endings. Tabs vs spaces. Wrapping. …

     When somebody says something is “plain” they mean it meets their rather narrow expectations.

   • Embed this notice
     Victor Zambrano (argonaut@mastodon.social)'s status on Thursday, 19-Dec-2024 05:51:54 JST Victor Zambrano

     in reply to

     • Greg Wilson

     @lesley @gvwilson include “plain”. not one thing on earth is or will ever be “plain”

     alcinnz repeated this.