@ -83,22 +83,13 @@ Many episodes in her writings describe interactions with coworkers where she is
"Workers leaving the Googleplex" present this same last situation more than twenty years later, with Google pushing minorities towards subaltern unskilled work. See: http://www.andrewnormanwilson.com/WorkersGoogleplex.html
```
This condition is reflected also in the pages of code documentation. Technical manuals and software specifications have been addressed, and written from the point of view of, this very specific public, populated mainly by male engineers.
This condition is reflected also in the pages of code documentation.
Technical manuals and software specifications have been addressed, and written from the point of view of, this very specific public, populated mainly by male engineers.
Mara Karayanni researches on technical documentation from a feminist perspective. The project _Read The Feminist Manual_, published with Psaroskala Zine, presents an investigation of gendered language in software manuals.
One case studies is about the `gettext` localization program from the GNU community. The program provides a system to internationalize other code, to let developers translate prompts and contents in different languages other than english. It's an application that already implies a collaboration between different kinds of knowledge (developer, translator) in the making of software. Yet, the manual opens with the sentence:
Mara Karayanni researches on technical documentation from a feminist perspective. The project _Read The Feminist Manual_, published with Psaroskala Zine, presents an investigation of gendered language in software manuals. One case studies is about the `gettext` localization program from the GNU community. The program provides a system to internationalize other code, to let developers translate prompts and contents in different languages other than english. It's an application that already implies a collaboration between different kinds of knowledge (developer, translator) in the making of software. Yet, the manual opens with the sentence:
_"In this manual, we use he when speaking of the programmer or maintainer, she when speaking of the translator, and they when speaking of the installers or end users of the translated program."_
This gendered language comes with an embedded and gendered separation of roles.
This gendered language comes with an embedded separation of roles.
The GNU and the open-source software development happens with code contributions within communities, and indeed someone submitted a patch to change pronouns in the documentation, proposing a neutral approach to undo the stereotypes, and broaden the people represented by the documentation. But the contribuition was rejected, and the pronouns remains. Eventually a disclaimer was added: that the gendered language is by no mean to say that certain roles are best fit for males, and that the phrasing is just a way of writing more clear instructions.
@ -128,14 +119,11 @@ Programming means to deal with picky stubborn machines that don't overlook a sin
Mark Fisher used this image in the context of labor under capitalist realism, where workers are forced in precarity and isolation. Here as in a downward auction, people are driven to bring down each others. (Fisher, 2013). I'm using it with a focus on the emotional component: not just lack of empathy and solidarity, but also reproduction and legitimisation of toxic behaviors in coding communities.
When all the energies are invested in debugging, the quest to find and solve all the problem in a program, and no space is left for introspection, programmers start behaving as machines. This poses serious barriers to the participation of others in the making of software.
When all the energies are invested in debugging, the quest to find and solve all the problem in a program, and no space is left for introspection, programmers start behaving as machines. This lack of empathy it's a barrier for the participation of others in the making of software.
Here some examples that go in a different direction.
Here some examples that go in a different direction, on different scales.
`elaborate: big projects and small gestures`
`awkward gesture?`
p5.js is a Javascript library started by the artist Lauren McCarthy as online porting of Processing, itself being a project to promote both software literacy within the visual arts, and visual literacy in software development.
p5.js is a popular Javascript library started by the artist Lauren McCarthy as online porting of Processing, itself being a project to promote both software literacy within the visual arts, and visual literacy in software development.
The work of documentation around p5.js offers entry points to the world of programming, taking care of not taking too many things for granted. The amount of care and efforts in their tutorial about [debugging](https://p5js.org/learn/debugging.html), for example, results in a welcoming article with different levels of accessibility. Here the drawings help to visualize complex concepts, the tutorial format is beginner-friendly, and the narration makes for an interesting reading also for who is already familiar with debugging.
@ -143,11 +131,10 @@ One of the most frightening aspects of programming is to be confronted with stac
Another reflection on entry points and gatekeeping comes from the english artist and writer James Bridle. Their practice explores the cultural and ecological impacts of digital computation, walking and jamming the thin line between what is showed and what is kept hidden in the technological landscape we live in.
In the artwork `welcome.js` (2016), a tiny Javascript library published open source on GitHub under a permissive MIT license, Bridle injects some greetings in their website (and in all the websites that include the library) to welcome users to the browser inspector.
When opening the browser inspector in the Facebook website, one faces a wall. A message printed in the console halt users from accessing the page hidden structure. The platform adopted this approach to prevent scams and Self-XSS attacks to their users, that could have been lured into running malicious code in their own browsers by malevolent people. However, instead of encouraging their userbase to understand, explore and eventually feel more safe against these cyberattacks, the company opted for a full stop, marking a clear line between user and developers.
The artwork is hidden below the surface of the website, printed in the console of the browser inspector, a tool which allows users to see underlying code of the website they are visiting. From here `welcome.js` provides some guidance for newcommers to access, inspect and modify the source code of web pages. A process to open doors and let people in, giving them more agency by demistifying technology.
`welcome.js` (2016) is a small gesture in response, a tiny Javascript library published open source on GitHub under a permissive MIT license, where Bridle injects some greetings in their website (and in all the websites that include the library) to welcome users to the browser inspector. The artwork is hidden below the surface of the website, printed in the console of the browser inspector, a tool which allows users to see underlying code of the website they are visiting. From here it provides some guidance for newcommers to access, inspect and modify the source code of web pages. A process to open doors and let people in, giving them more agency by demistifying technology.
The script comes as response to a similar, but opposite and violent, message printed by Facebook in the console on their platform to halt users from accessing the page hidden structure. The platform adopted this approach to prevent scams and Self-XSS attacks to their users, that could have been lured into running malicious code in their own browsers by malicious people. However, instead of encouraging their userbase to understand, explore and eventually feel more safe against cyberattacks, the company opted for a full stop, marking a clear line between user and developers.
Message in console printed by Facebook to stop users - source: booktwo.org
@ -156,6 +143,7 @@ Message in console printed by Facebook to stop users - source: booktwo.org
Message in console printed by Bridle to welcome users - source: booktwo.org
Whether in big project or small gesture, attention to language can be transformative. In code documentation it can help deconstructing the false dichotomy between programmer and user, or pro and newbie. It can create spaces that feel more safe, where people are invited to participate, express themselves and contribute to the community. It can help undoing the impostor syndrome that affects many programmer, and that feed on some hidden and inaccessible fundational knowledge nowhere to be found in code documentation. It can help to cast some light onto the massive amount of work around the making of software: recognizing all contributions, not just the ones from engineers.
### 1.3 Documentation as gardening
@ -171,25 +159,6 @@ Writing docs is not a once in a lifetime effort, but rather a continuous commitm
It's a process that requires a massive amount of energies and resources. Yet, it seems to be constantly understimated, undervaluated, and pushed towards the margins. Something left for when there's nothing better to do, something to delegate. Something perceived as a burden, as a killjoy, a display of weakness from _real programmers_ that should be able to understand a program by directly reading the sourcecode.
```note
not super happy with the references for the part about gendered and subaltern work, would prefer to have more recent accounts, or more specific.
could be something left open for a next episode?
```
```placeholder
documentation as gendered labour, and subaltern labour. examples: excerpt from pattern of software (all programmers are male, all technical writers are female), excerpt from life in code (tech conference public).
```
Writing documentation is perceived as subaltern labour.
- gendered labour
- reports from ullman about tech fairs: women just present at documentation related events
- accounts on Lucid by Richard Gabriel: female documentation manager, female technical writers
- subaltern labour
- typical pattern of tech industry?
- same as data entry,
- see ullman - close to the mainframe
- see workers leaving the google plex ? it'S a slightly different context?
All these effort are a good display of what advocated in the Post-Meritocracy Manifesto by Coraline Ada Ehmke and more than other six hundred signatories: the making of software is not just a matter of engineering skills, but interpersonal relations and social dynamics, where all the contributions around code are important as the one on the code itself.
Documentation is a surface where all the sociality, relations, and context around code are rendered visibile. An interface between the technical world of machines, the affective sphere of the community, the delicate and demanding economies of open source projects, and the politics of distribution, circulation and participation in the making of software.
