Here’s the merge conflict message our merge master got when she tried to cherry pick my pull request (PR) to version 4.7 of the published OpenShift docs (lines , below). Here, I start by deleting the enterprise-4.7 branch (line ) because it had a previous unmerged commit sitting at the top of the pile. (In…More
Category Archives: technical writing
WordPress bug with highlighting lines in a code block
I discovered a bug. When you use the highlight lines property for code blocks as shown here… …the highlighting for the higher line numbers gets confused, as shown with lines 27, 39, 60 in the following screenshot. I’ve reached out to WordPress support and will let you know how it goes. I’ll try to file…More
Just as wild animals follow patterns that allow them to find adequate nutrition with the minimum expenditure of calories, information seekers follow patterns that allow them to find adequate information with the minimum expenditure of mental energy. Mark baker, Every Page is Page OneMore
How I create my to-do list in todoist
Recently, I wrote about zero inbox, my hack for getting rid of email stress and mess. I also mentioned that it depends on having a to-do list that can link back to your email messages. A few years ago, I started using the free version of Todoist, an elegant and dependable app developed by a Germany-based…More
Make it SIMPLE
Il semble que la perfection soit atteinte non quand il n’y a plus rien à ajouter, mais quand il n’y a plus rien à retrancher. …perfection is finally attained not when there is no longer anything to add, but when there is no longer anything to take away… ANTOINE DE SAINT EXUPERY, Terre des Hommes,…More
How to make your ideas stick. Part 1/7: Introduction
This is the first in a series of posts on my journey as a technical writer to improve how I deliver ideas to readers’ minds and make them stick there. You never know where you’ll discover a gold nugget. I found Chip and Dan Heath’s work by chance in a Google docs slide template called Making…More
Overview: Write the Docs, Portland 2020
This year’s WTD conference was online/virtual only. This shift to virtual conferences make them more inclusive and accessible to attendees whose work, personal responsibilities, finances, or other constraints would normally discourage them from participating. Although this conference was well-attended by folks on the West Coast, by my estimate, half of the attendees were from other…More
My first (awful) video presentation
Ughh! 8 days for 8 minutes of awful video A few weeks back, I saw an opportunity to give a presentation to my fellow developers. The dev lead for oVirt put out an RFP for the upcoming oVirt 2020 Online Conference. Oh, and by the way, please prerecord your presentation so we can upload it…More
Well begun (in Git) is half done
Well begun is half done. ~ Aristotle Inspired by James Clear’s book, Atomic Habits, I’ve started starting tasks before it’s time to do them. For example, I prepare the Keurig coffee machine before bed each night. I fill the reusable filter with fresh coffee grounds and top up the reservoir with water. As a sign…More
Developer-contributed content in upstream docs
“No software spec survives first contact with the compiler.” One of the interesting bits in the project type #1: Team=Both, Code=Up>Down, Docs=Down>Up scenario is when developers write up their feature plans in the upstream repo. Often, these show up in the /doc subdirectory. Often, before coding, a developer writes up a description of the new feature…More
