SC - Why "Request for documentation" is a bad subject title

[david friedman]

At 8:12 PM +0100 12/10/97, Par Leijonhufvud wrote:

>Imagine the situation that you've been given a recipe (e.g. by the
>autocrat) with no documentation (or useless documentation)  but with
>assurances that it _is_ period. Then a fully valid question is:  "Can
>anyone document this dish?".

But "can anyone document this dish" is not a request for documentation--it
is a request for information on whether documentation exists.

Or to put it differently, if someone posts "request for evidence that John
killed Mary," someone who responds "John didn't kill Mary" is not
satisfying the request. Similarly, someone who responds to a request for
documentation of a dish with evidence that the dish is not period isn't
providing documentation that the dish is period--which is what "documenting
a dish" means in this context--hence isn't doing what the original poster
asked.

David/Cariadoc
http://www.best.com/~ddfr/


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