Controlled Language 3-99 (September 1999) by Jeff Allen

to the tcf-gen Mailing-List: CL 18)

At 19/05/99, Amo Fuchs wrote:

> Try to adjust your menus/instructions on an LCD screen of a PC
> (programmable controller) with say 8 lines of 40 characters only!

> I cannot imagine that any manual of CL or other tool could help,
> except your manual (pun intended) exercise with the piece of equipment considered.
> You may, e.g., have to shorten words, and your dilemma will be how to trim a word
> so that the user understands that there is an abbreviation and not an error.
> This means that in your background you rely on a certain knowledge of the manufacturer
> and of the user. And in each case it will be different.

Caterpillar Inc has actually been working over the past 2-3 years on an adapted version of their CL (originally for narrative text and procedures) for diagnostics and troubleshooting procedural texts. This includes text to appear on mini-screens, including codes and abbreviations. I did some of the first diagnostics and troubleshooting pilot test writing in Caterpillar's CTE for such texts in 1995.

> This is of course a strong argument in favour of a disambiguos language -
> it is just that one may need to have a wholistic approach to a text
> and to consider both the text and it's phisical support.

Service manuals written in CLs may eventually disappear in paper form. Some manufacturers are moving to CD-Rom media so that manuals can be displayed on portable computers and laptops, many with touch screen and voice activated interface for the mechanics to work with. This is possible with the Mentis wearable/portable computer platform. We had a demo model of this computer on my past project at Carnegie Mellon University. I have heard that some manufacturers are already implementing the Mentis wearable computer in (nearly) hands-free environments.

> On the other hand, when you write a manual for an aircraft,
> you do not have certain limitations >of paper, I guess.

On the contrary, the binding of a 500 - 1000 page service manual does not last very long. Electronic media help deal with this problem. CD-Roms are searchable on SGML codes, pre-determined computer screen fields, and typed in free-form text.

Regards,
Jeff Allen

"transline Deutschland - Übersetzungsdienst für technische Übersetzung"