Scott on Writing

Musings on technical writing...

September's Toolbox Column in MSDN Magazine

My ninth Toolbox column in the September 2006 issue of MSDN Magazine is now avaiable online. The September issue examines three products:

  • Fast-Help (version 4.4) - quickly and easily create help documentation that can be saved as WinHelp, HtmlHelp, PDF, Word, or web page-based help files.
  • FinalBuilder (version 4.1) - organize and manage your build process using FinalBuilder's intuitive user interface.
  • XHEO|Licensing (version 2.1) - protect your intellectual property by adding copy protection to your applications. With XHEO|Licensing, you can protect .NET applications using a variety of licensing schemes (serial numbers, online registration, and so on).

This month's issue reviewed Joel Spolsky's The Best Software Writing I anthology, which is a collection of essays pertinent to developers and project managers. It's quite similar to Spolsky's previous work, Joel on Software (which I blogged about earlier). Here's an excerpt from the review:

While the articles about computer science fundamentals, software design, testing, and project management are to be expected, there are also interesting pieces on topics secondary to actual development, but important to developers nevertheless. One essay, written by a developer's spouse, lambastes the short-sighted corporate policies instituted by her husband's employer; another ruminates on intellectual property rights and how it affects us all.

The title - The Best Software Writing I - rings with a tinge of hyperbole since the essays considered for inclusion were restricted to those written in the past two years. But all of the essays included were very interesting, well-written pieces. They range in length from a single page to over a dozen, but even the longer ones seem to end too soon. Joel's introductions to each essay also add color to the collection.

As always, if you have any suggestions for products or books to review for the Toolbox column, please send them into toolsmm@microsoft.com

You can keep abreast of the latest Toolbox articles through the column's RSS feed or the Toolbox column category here on my blog.

posted on Sunday, August 13, 2006 1:34 PM

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DayTotal% of Total
Sunday 1866.8%
Monday 37913.9%
Tuesday 45316.7%
Wednesday 50418.5%
Thursday 53519.7%
Friday 49418.2%
Saturday 1666.1%
Total 2717100.0%

Hour1Total% of Total
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2:00 AM 622.3%
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4:00 AM 572.1%
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12:00 PM 1886.9%
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Total 2717100.0%

Comments by Blog Entry Date/Time

Day Entry MadeAvg.Total
Sunday 5.54144
Monday 5.22339
Tuesday 4.28419
Wednesday 7.67637
Thursday 6.90607
Friday 5.48411
Saturday 5.33160
Total 5.842717

Hour1 Entry MadeAvg.Total
12:00 AM 5.0035
1:00 AM 1.002
5:00 AM 0.000
7:00 AM 7.0035
8:00 AM 5.35107
9:00 AM 6.32278
10:00 AM 6.47246
11:00 AM 4.41181
12:00 PM 6.88330
1:00 PM 3.00111
2:00 PM 5.41222
3:00 PM 8.64285
4:00 PM 4.0589
5:00 PM 5.92154
6:00 PM 4.52113
7:00 PM 9.67174
8:00 PM 9.80147
9:00 PM 5.05111
10:00 PM 5.4265
11:00 PM 4.5732
Total 5.842717

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