The field of software documentation is reviewed by examining manual writing before and after 1985. Changes in the field include an increased emphasis on satisfaction of users, improved management strategies and improved design techniques. Three books on software documentation published since 1988 are surveyed, and it is argued that the trends after 1985 reinforce a social constructionist view of documentation.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>