Bits, atoms, and the technical writer: the rhetoric of STOP

ABSTRACT

The STOP system required designers and writers to take responsibility for the actual, physical book to be received by the reader, rather than merely the "content" of the book. It was based on a rhetoric in which the creators of a book had to make it readable and accessible, to make the logical and physical book isomorphic. In modern parlance, STOP authors were responsible for both bits and atoms and would not think of them independently. In the 1990s, however, such notions are, apparently, incompatible with the conceptions of information architecture, in which "content" is conceived of as bits and authors cannot control the virtual messages extracted by their readers.

INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  D. Software
  D.2 SOFTWARE ENGINEERING
      D.2.7 Distribution, Maintenance, and Enhancement
          Subjects: Documentation

Additional Classification:
  I. Computing Methodologies
  I.7 DOCUMENT AND TEXT PROCESSING

General Terms:
Design, Documentation, Languages