in email, "specific is terrific"

From: Jeremy Siek (jsiek_at_[hidden])
Date: 2001-08-08 10:23:51

My high-school english teacher use to always say, "specific is terrific."

This is especially true for email discussions. It can be very difficult
over a low-bandwidth medium like email to really understand what other
people are saying. The best way to communicate effectively over email is
to be VERY specific. Vague statements about what you like or dislike do
not carry much information. On the other handle, code examples and
concrete reasons carry a lot of information. The code examples are
especially important since most of us here speak C++ better than english
(even for those of us with english as a 1st language!).

Also, it is hard to have a flame war when discussing concrete details,
whereas it is much easier to flame about vague "religious" statements.

Being specific of course takes a lot of work... it is much easier to wave
your hands than it is to write down exactly what you are thinking.
However, to move Boost forward it is worth it to put in the extra work of
being specific.

Sincerely,
Jeremy

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 Jeremy Siek                        www: http://www.lsc.nd.edu/~jsiek/
 Ph.D. Candidate, IU B'ton          email: jsiek_at_[hidden]
 Summer Manager, AT&T Research      phone: [phone]
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