This is disgusting. My book is no longer an advanced WebObjects book; that I can tolerate. But now it’s become a book for drooling cretins. “Change the variable declaration to read thus” I say, and my editor says, “Don’t use jargon.”

I tell them to open ‘the component you wish to edit’ and he says, “be specific. Which component?”

‘change X to Y to create a variable of type int’, I say, and he says, “where? You need to hold their hand here.” There’s one bloody dialog on the screen. I described it in the previous step, and there are three screen shots showing it. How about, “click the mousey-wousey on the cute little button thingy, and make bad mister “java.lang.String” go away with the big ‘ol backspace button.”

I am writing a book for skilled programmers, but I can’t assume they know anything about programming.

It’s not jargon. It’s terminology. It’s for grown ups. Skilled, intelligent people who supposedly know what a method signature is. Christ.

It makes me want to throw in the entire thing and leave. Why waste my hands working on such a thing, in such an environment? There’s no shame in a job well done, but I’d rather be a penthouse whore than the equivalent of a purveyor of truck-stop bathroom-stall handjobs.