technothaumaturgy

People who don't use much technology seem to think it's magic.


Current client is putting written work online, which involves coding. In particular, coding which makes pretty maths equations look like actual maths equations. Because the things that make equations look good in Word make online equations totally incomprehensible – if, in fact, they appear at all.

Thankfully, there is a button they can press that's magic. It goes like this:
1) Pretty Word equations
2) A MIRACLE OCCURRETH
3) Pretty online equations

I am now attempting to break it gently to my client that they cannot get these files checked by someone who doesn't know coding. And that I have, in fact, spent most of my week dealing with the coding, because magic buttons, while helpful, are not a panacea. Despite the magic buttons, I still have to
- check every line of equation coding
- fix all the errors that crept in during the conversion
- code all the bits that were just part of the normal text, and hence weren't converted


It's surprisingly hard to explain. Much as I imagine it'd be hard for the local wizard to explain why invisibility cloaks just don't work that way.