[Year 12 Its] Prim vs Sec Data Sources & Documentation

[Donna Benjamin]

I 'consulted' an industry list about this and got the following reply  
from Adam Crow who runs DClabs - they engineer, build and supply  
network servers.

Thanks Adam! :)

- D.

Begin forwarded message:

> From: Adam Crow <adamcrow64 at gmail.com>
> Reply-To: acrow at dclabs.com.au
>
>
> The error log is directly produced by the program hence it is a  
> primary source.
> The other is created from a secondary source and it does not matter
> whether it is done by the programmer (Many programmers have to
> document code they did not write) or tech writer, or requirements
> writer etc. They are creating data that is not being generated from
> the original source. Other primary sources might be generated from the
> requirements spec.
>
> That is why it is of assistance to create documentation from the
> source (javadoc, perldoc etc) too where possible.
>
> Even programmers sometimes don't know what they are supposed to to be
> writing. Their code might be faultless but not adhere to the spec. If
> they wrote documentation in that instance then it too would be wrong.