interviewed by merle_
1) As someone who writes documentation for programmers, what do you
perceive as the main complaint (or enhancement request) that you get?
The most common request, I think, is for more examples. That's not surprising, as a good example both is worth a lot and takes a while to write and document. There's usually not enough effort budgetted to develop (and maintain) rich example sets. :-( There is also an art to choosing the right examples, of course. Too often documentation that does have a lot of examples has distracting ones that overwhelm the reader. So what people ask for is "more", but in my experience they really mean "more + better".
By the way, the most common complaint I have with other programming documentation, and thus try to avoid in my own, is lack of specificity -- restrictions on parameters or return values beyond what I can learn from the signature ("did you mean a positive int? positive and non-zero?), the types of members of collections (if not obvious, e.g. Java generics), when null is possible versus not, and stuff like that. The signature tells me the syntax, but it rarely conveys the semantics. I can get really tired of seeing javadoc like "returns: an int". Well, duh...
2) During your life, have you tended to move from smaller towns to larger cities, vice versa, or is it a mix?
I have spent the last 40 years living in about a 25-mile radius. :-) I grew up in suburbs, went to college in the city, and have lived in the city or immediately outside it ever since. ("Immediately outside" was about tax jurisdiction, not density of buildings.) I'm happy in a moderate-sized city; I don't think I would want to live in a big one like NYC or LA, but I like Pittsburgh.
3) Is there a particular event which caused you to choose the religious faith that you have?
Caused, no. Made me aware enough to start paying attention, yes. I had been inellectually curious about Judaism for a while (as I am with many things, including other religions). I'd been to Pesach seders with friends a few times (but nothing else). One year I found myself without the friends but with the desire for the seder, which struck me as odd. I went to one where I didn't know anyone, found that it resonated rather strongly, and spent the next while intensely trying to find out why. That led me to lots of books, friends willing to engage in long conversations, and, eventually, into the synagogue.
4) What, if any, types of music do you truly loathe and deplore?
There aren't specific genres, mostly, but a few characteristics can strongly turn me off. First up is incomprehensible lyrics, by which I mean bad enunciation and operatic techniques, not foreign languages. (It's ok if I don't speak the language; it's not ok if someone who does still can't understand what's being sung. If you want to use your voice but not words, have the courage to just do that.) Next, extremely offensive lyrics, either thematically (not that common) or over-use of profanity (more common). On the musical side, atonal or non-melodic is an instant turn-off; I think pitch and use of fixed intervals are pretty fundamental to music. They don't have to be the pitches/intervals I'm used to; bring out your quarter-tones, your eastern modes, and whatnot. But I want there to be a system; maybe it's a mathematical thing. I've heard stuff that was labelled music but sounded to me like the contents of one's kitchen cupboards tumbling to the floor; that's not for me. (It's also becoming apparent that I don't really have the proper vocabulary for discussing it.)
The most common request, I think, is for more examples. That's not surprising, as a good example both is worth a lot and takes a while to write and document. There's usually not enough effort budgetted to develop (and maintain) rich example sets. :-( There is also an art to choosing the right examples, of course. Too often documentation that does have a lot of examples has distracting ones that overwhelm the reader. So what people ask for is "more", but in my experience they really mean "more + better".
By the way, the most common complaint I have with other programming documentation, and thus try to avoid in my own, is lack of specificity -- restrictions on parameters or return values beyond what I can learn from the signature ("did you mean a positive int? positive and non-zero?), the types of members of collections (if not obvious, e.g. Java generics), when null is possible versus not, and stuff like that. The signature tells me the syntax, but it rarely conveys the semantics. I can get really tired of seeing javadoc like "returns: an int". Well, duh...
2) During your life, have you tended to move from smaller towns to larger cities, vice versa, or is it a mix?
I have spent the last 40 years living in about a 25-mile radius. :-) I grew up in suburbs, went to college in the city, and have lived in the city or immediately outside it ever since. ("Immediately outside" was about tax jurisdiction, not density of buildings.) I'm happy in a moderate-sized city; I don't think I would want to live in a big one like NYC or LA, but I like Pittsburgh.
3) Is there a particular event which caused you to choose the religious faith that you have?
Caused, no. Made me aware enough to start paying attention, yes. I had been inellectually curious about Judaism for a while (as I am with many things, including other religions). I'd been to Pesach seders with friends a few times (but nothing else). One year I found myself without the friends but with the desire for the seder, which struck me as odd. I went to one where I didn't know anyone, found that it resonated rather strongly, and spent the next while intensely trying to find out why. That led me to lots of books, friends willing to engage in long conversations, and, eventually, into the synagogue.
4) What, if any, types of music do you truly loathe and deplore?
There aren't specific genres, mostly, but a few characteristics can strongly turn me off. First up is incomprehensible lyrics, by which I mean bad enunciation and operatic techniques, not foreign languages. (It's ok if I don't speak the language; it's not ok if someone who does still can't understand what's being sung. If you want to use your voice but not words, have the courage to just do that.) Next, extremely offensive lyrics, either thematically (not that common) or over-use of profanity (more common). On the musical side, atonal or non-melodic is an instant turn-off; I think pitch and use of fixed intervals are pretty fundamental to music. They don't have to be the pitches/intervals I'm used to; bring out your quarter-tones, your eastern modes, and whatnot. But I want there to be a system; maybe it's a mathematical thing. I've heard stuff that was labelled music but sounded to me like the contents of one's kitchen cupboards tumbling to the floor; that's not for me. (It's also becoming apparent that I don't really have the proper vocabulary for discussing it.)