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documentation

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documentation

1. the furnishing and use of documentary evidence, as in a court of law
2. Computing the written comments, graphical illustrations, flowcharts, manuals, etc., supplied with a program or software system
Collins Discovery Encyclopedia, 1st edition © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

Documentation

Any information that records the prior history of an existing building or site; such as maps, site plans, drawings or photographs, or written historic references as to its physical appearance.
Illustrated Dictionary of Architecture Copyright © 2012, 2002, 1998 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved

documentation

[‚däk·yə·mən′tā·shən]
(computer science)
The collection, organized and stored, of records that describe the purpose, use, structure, details, and operational requirements of a program, for the purpose of making this information easily accessible to the user.
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific & Technical Terms, 6E, Copyright © 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

documentation

(programming)
The multiple kilograms of macerated, pounded, steamed, bleached, and pressed trees that accompany most modern software or hardware products (see also tree-killer). Hackers seldom read paper documentation and (too) often resist writing it; they prefer theirs to be terse and on-line. A common comment on this predilection is "You can't grep dead trees".

See drool-proof paper, verbiage, treeware.
This article is provided by FOLDOC - Free Online Dictionary of Computing (foldoc.org)

documentation

The narrative and graphical description of a system. Following are the kinds of documentation required to describe an information system for both users and systems staff. See self-documenting code, technical writer, online help and RTFM.

Operating Procedures



1. Instructions for turning system on and initiating the programs (see load).

2. Instructions for entering data, which includes screenshots for every scenario the user encounters.

3. Description of error messages that can occur and methods for handling them.

4. Description of the defaults in the programs and the instructions for changing them (see default).

5. If printed reports are used, instructions for distribution.

System Documentation



1. Data dictionary - Description of files and databases (see data dictionary).

2. System flowchart - Description of data flowing flow from source document to report (see flowchart).

3. Application programs - Description of inputs, processing and outputs for each data entry, query, update and report function in the system (see information system).

Technical Documentation



1. File structures (see file manager and access method).

2. Program logic (see flowchart).

3. Source code (see program documentation).

4. Machine procedures (see batch file and JCL).
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References in periodicals archive
The Documentation Usability Team will likely begin to shift its focus from ushering writers into the process of documentation testing to providing a constant flow of usability information on the MathWorks documentation.
Baseline data were obtained before staff education on the new documentation standards.
We realize that today's ambulatory practices have unique clinical workflows, and these once forced physicians to choose between documentation methods, losing time and efficiency in the process, said Peter Mahoney, senior vice president and general manager, Dragon and clinical documentation, Nuance.
To do so, leaders have to understand the depth of documentation data that is needed to perform the detailed level of coding required.
* At the Winter Park, Fla.-based Adventist Health System, where 18 of 26 hospitals have so far gone live on CPOE, Kshitij Saxena, M.D., medical director, medical informatics, reports that he and his colleagues have actually gone live with physician documentation many months before CPOE.
BluePrint uses the CAD data to automatically create unlimited views, details, and charts of the PCB, and can revise the documentation to reflect new PCB changes, reportedly in seconds.
In our example, Company A in its proposal highlighted the benefits of its documentation module.
CM helps maintain consistency between the products and all relevant documentation. The CM process also documents and limits variances in a given product.
* Auditors should assemble audit documentation within 60 days from the audit report date.
This nonprofessional documentary about journalists presupposes the very distance that guarantees the freedom of documentation as artistic praxis.
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