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Subject:RE: Baiting for the single source rant From:Mike Stockman <stockman -at- jagunet -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Wed, 5 Sep 2001 13:21:23 -0400
On 09/05/2001 12:33 PM, david -dot- locke -at- amd -dot- com (david -dot- locke -at- amd -dot- com) wrote:
>Ultimately what [single sourcing] means to the customer, the end user, is
less treatment
>variety. Help stops being help and print stops being print. The customer
>never knows which they will get a print document pretending to be a help
>document or a help document pretending to be a print document.
What you're describing is what happens when single-sourcing is done
wrong. Taking a single document and publishing it in many media may be
what *you* think of as single-sourcing, but done correctly, it involves
taking chunks of information (that will be valid and true in any medium)
and publishing them in the way that best suits the medium in which they
appear. The flow and organization of online help is different from that
of print documentation, but the same information can be contained by
both, if you do it right.
Don't trash an entire publishing method by the examples of how badly
people can screw it up. You might as well make the argument that because
some modular software crashes constantly, modular software development
can't possibly work well.
----->Mike
________________________________________________________________
stockman -at- jagunet -dot- com -- AOL and AOL Instant Messenger:MStockman
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