Olin Lathrop wrote:
> Since the main unit has a front panel, I assume it also normally has a
> box around it.  There are probably more things the average idiot can screw
> up in opening the box, plugging in the board, possibly verifying 
> operation,
> and closing the box again than you think.  The instructions should explain
> exactly which screws to undo, order to do things in, orientation of the
> module in words without relying on the picture, how to close the box 
> again,
> and how to verify the PIM is installed right and working.  You have to
> include things like telling people to disconnect power before opening the
> box, and perhaps how to avoid zapping the sensitive electronics inside 
> once
> it's open.  There is a lot more to say than you think.  I expect this 
> would
> be about a page, including a 1/4 page picture that shows a closeup of the
> PIM properly installed.

Olin, you make it sound so dreadful! The users of this module are expected 
to have at least a B.Sc. in EE or CE. I believe it is counterproductive to 
assume they are idiots.

I'm not against including a reminder to make sure the power is turned off, 
and explaining how to line up the module with the socket, but instructions 
on how to undo four screws and put them back together, would insult most 
users' intelligence -- not to mention needlessly waste their time and paper.


> The mostly likely result is someone just prints it normally, then mutters 
> to
> themselves "why did these ---holes have to use color!!?".

But of course. :-)

A variation of Godwin's Law, Olin's Law of Assholes, states:

===
    As a PICList discussion grows longer, the probability of Olin referring 
to another poster as "asshole" approaches 1.
===


> One of my customers leases their office laser printer.  They get charged 
> per
> page.  The cost of a page with color on it is 60 times (yes, sixty) more
> than a black and white page.  Despite repeated pleas to only use color 
> when
> you need it and to make B+W your default, some people just won't do it. 
> The
> other day the operations guy was mentioning to me how he gets pissed off
> when someone prints a email message in color, with only the heading or 
> email
> address in color and the rest in black.  It would have been just as 
> readable
> in B+W, but some bozos either don't care or think it's cool to see the
> heading in color.

After considering the costs involved in renting a color printer, we decided 
to buy one instead (it's a Dell 3110cn). The cost of printing in color is 
Most people have their printer set to the b+w Brother by default, and the 
one person (a engineer whom I would not describe as a "bozo") who still had 
his default printer set to the color Dell, after being asked a few times not 
to use the color printer for b/w stuff, had his printer settings changed by 
me.

Sometimes it is far easier to change the technology, than to change the 
people.


> If people ever print your manaul on a laser printer, there is a good 
> chance
> that it will be in B+W.  That could be either because the office laser
> printer is B+W only, as many are, or because they used the cheaper default
> of B+W because they figured (correctly in my opinion), that anything 
> called
> a manual or datasheet should be just as readable in B+W.

FWIW, I printed the DS in b+w, and you can easily see the difference between 
black and blue (blue becomes a shade of gray).


> In your case I would use color for the photographs only.  No real
> information will be lost if they get printed or otherwise viewed in B+W. 
> If
> you want to mark some protocol commands as special, do it with normal 
> black
> markings, like bold font, a asterisk, arrow, in a separate section, etc.

I'll consider it. :-)

I think it certain cases color would be very beneficial. I find myself 
color-coding Microchip datasheets and other similar docs, all the time. A 
recent example is when we were coming up with a pinout for a new device, we 
marked different types of pins using different color highlighters.


> However, in all cases you must explain what the extra marking means and 
> why
> someone might care about the distinction.

"Must"? :)

In general, I agree -- but what if the information is optional, and is 
merely helpful? Why clutter the datasheet with the non-essentials?

Vitaliy 

-- 
http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive
View/change your membership options at
http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist