when "electronic" documentation equals "online" documentation

aloha, all!

during today's telecon, during her prefatory background remarks, judy 
spoke of a requirement for "electronic" documentation, which raised my 
hackles, as experience has taught me to associate talk of electronic 
documentation with "online" documentation, especially in cases where 
the user isn't informed of updates to the documentation, or for those 
circumstances when the user cannot get online in order to obtain the 
help that user needs in order to get online or to perform an action 
online...

this led me to suggest that if "electronic" is interpreted as "online" 
then the following becomes a requirement:

1. a mechanism for automatically querying for newer versions of the 
   applications' documentation whenever the user determines; and

2. the caching of updated documents locally as they are updated 
   remotely

this is modeled on update mechanisms common today, which offer the user 
a choice of

      A) "Automatically Check, Download and Install",
      B) "Prompt Me Before Download"
      C) "Prompt Me Before Installation"
      E) "Check:"
             E1) monthly
             E2) weekly
             E3) daily
             E4) now (would start the checking and caching of 
                 new documentation)

the default setting should be B (Prompt Me Before Download) and the 
default "Check" should be monthly

of course, any such documentation would need to be WCAG and other 
pertinent GL conformant, at the highest level of conformance...

gregory.
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DELIBERATION, n.  The act of examining one's bread to determine
which side it is buttered on.
                         Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary
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           Gregory J. Rosmaita: oedipus@hicom.net
       Camera Obscura: http://www.hicom.net/~oedipus/
  Oedipus' Online Complex: http://my.opera.com/oedipus/
  United Blind Advocates for Talking Signs: http://ubats.org/
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Received on Thursday, 27 March 2008 19:55:47 UTC