>Yes, TE stands for Technical Editor. That said, Technical Editors SHOULD be experienced with the techncial material they are editing. How else can they do an effective job.
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>Tell me, what would you think of a book on C/S development with Visual FoxPro technically edited by somebody that has no exerience in developing C/S applications or with SQL Server? Well guess what, that is exactly the issue you have with the Hentzenwerke book. Chaim Caron is techncially editing that book. I happen to know that he has no experience in that field of computing. So then, how is he qualified to undertake that task?
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>I apply that same standard to all TE's...

I've worked with technical editors in many fields. Medical, scientific, and engineering.

An _editor_ (not _writer_) has to be intelligent about the field, of course, but amazingly, they do not have to be professionals in it.

Now, if someone is going to indict something like how we (as professionals) address users needs (with UI design), then absolutely asking for citations, references, and credentials is fair.

If someone responded that they are a theoretician, I wouldn't think that's a bad thing necessarily, unless they are offering opinions on practical implementations.

So, for example, a theoretical physicist, walking into a experimental physicists lab offering suggestions how how to point the laser is, well, gonna take a fair amount of ribbing. But, it doesn't mean he doesn't have value to offer in his own field.

I *think* that was long-winded enough. :)