Adium "Book" - Opinions on Writing Style

[Peter Hosey]

On May 15, 2010, at 05:19:57, Michael Crilly wrote:
> http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2664389/PDFs/Adium/Documentation%20Project/About%20Adium.pdf

> •	It supports a HUGE range of services (or protocols, as we geeks call them).

> Supported Services
> What do we mean by a “service”? Well, by “service” we mean protocol. A protocol is like a language, and Adium uses these languages to talk with multiple accounts like MSN, GTalk, AIM, IQC and many more.

You're confusing three things.

A service is a system on which users with accounts on the service can chat with other users with accounts on the service.

The protocol is the means (or “language”) by which the client software (Adium) communicates with the service.

Accounts are the service's means of identification of users, containing both login credentials (so that users cannot impersonate each other) and profile information (so that users can find out, to some extent, who others are).

Services (MSN, GTalk, etc.) are not accounts, nor are they protocols.

Also, you have a typo in ICQ there.

> its self.

itself.

> This is a level of integration found in high-quality applications, like Apple’s Mail, iCal and iChat, as well as Quicksilver.

OOH, BURN!

I don't think we need to mention Quicksilver there at all (negatively or otherwise). The way I read this PDF, its target audience won't know what Quicksilver is.

> Adium has an anti-annoying system that allows you to merge multiple addresses into a single person - in this case, your best friend - and as such, you add people to your contact list, not addresses. Smooth.

You may want to mention that it will do this automatically for anybody whose IM usernames you've added to Address Book.

> Brillante!

Assuming that this is in Spanish, you've missed some punctuation:

¡Brillante!

> Adium is an open source project, which means it’s developed by loads of people from all around the world. It also means it’s completely free, as in, it doesn’t cost anything to buy!

Well, not really. Adium is free, but these two facts are not connected. It is certainly possible to charge for open-source software.