After Effects region of interest

I've been musing recently about the ways in which software engineering is similar to working on large-scale documentation projects. Just as there's a gulf between being a programmer and being a software engineer, there is also a gulf between being a technical writer and being an effective lead on a large documentation project. (I may get myself into trouble if I dwell on the analogous roles of computer scientist and information architect or editor.)

As I muse about these things, I return to an observation that I made a while ago about the similarities between the Unix philosophy as interpreted by Eric S. Raymond and principles for creation and management of large documents:

Rule of Repair: When you must fail, fail noisily and as soon as possible.

Rule of Modularity: Write simple parts connected by clean interfaces.

Rule of Clarity: Clarity is better than cleverness.

Rule of Composition: Design [documents] to be connected to other [documents].

Rule of Simplicity: Design for simplicity; add complexity only where you must.

Rule of Parsimony: Write a big [document] only when it is clear by demonstration that nothing else will do.

Rule of Least Surprise: In [document and] interface design, always do the least surprising thing.

Rule of Silence: When a [document] has nothing surprising to say, it should say nothing.

Rule of Economy: [User] time is expensive; conserve it in preference to [writer/localizer/editor] time.

Rule of Generation: Avoid hand-[writing]; write programs to write [documents] when you can.

Rule of Optimization: Prototype before polishing. Get it [correct] before you [copy-edit] it.

Rule of Diversity: Distrust all claims for "one true way".

Rule of Extensibility: Design for the future, because it will be here sooner than you think.

Just an idle thought for what is supposed to be a holiday.