Treffer: Constructing Usable Documentation: A Study of Communicative Practices and the Early Uses of Mainframe Computing in Industry.

Presents a historical study of early mainframe computing that demonstrates ways in which computer documentation genres grew out of other document types. Suggests early forms of documentation were borrowed from existing genres, and that official and unofficial documentation existed concurrently, despite efforts to consolidate these divergent texts, as early computer documentation professionals struggled with hybrid genres in changing corporate contexts. (SR)