The demise of Forefront: a lesson in tool dependencies?

[brett -dot- peruzzi -at- pfpc -dot- com]

Fellow whirlers:

I'm more than a bit surprised that there has not been more followup about
Alan Oslick's posting (below) about ForeFront's closing. My team has been
using Forehelp extensively for the past several years for WinHelp, and
we've just started to move into using it to produce web help in ForeFront's
Interhelp format. For Winhelp authors I think this is comparable to
Framemaker or Word being dropped by Adobe or Microsoft.

Ironically, *some* of ForeFront's technology (but not ForeHelp itself) will
be acquired by ComponentOne, which produces Doc-to-Help. We previously used
Doc-toHelp but my desire to use a HAT not dependent on Word brought us to
ForeHelp.

But the bigger lesson for me is that old TECHWR-L chestnut: specific tool
knowledge vs. tool-independent skills. Sure, we'll continue to use
ForeHelp, but with no support and no new versions, sooner or later we'll
probably have to move to another HAT. And instead of the Big Three
(RoboHelp, Doc-to-Help, and ForeHelp) we now only have the Big Two. Or
maybe by then there will only be the Big One.

I have drilled into my writers for years the need to learn how to write and
design good online information in general, and THEN learn the tool du jour.
For my money a writer is better off knowing the theory and practice of
creating good help, vs. how to do neat things in Tool X. I have seen plenty
of terrible help files produced by people who know how to use RoboHelp for
example, but not how to write and structure online information. And with
this week's lesson that a leading vendor's tool can disappear in a
heartbeat, my belief is only strengthened.

My other thought is that building-block technologies like HTML and
JavaScript are looking better than ever. We've been manually creating web
help in HTML for several years, and generally it fits the bill. I wanted to
spiff things up a bit with more features and automation, and hence the
foray into ForeFront's Interhelp format. I know the other vendors offer a
comparable solution. But I take comfort in knowing that if all the vendors
fold, or we're faced with having only a single product to choose from (and
getting overcharged and/or undersupported), our trusty HTML editors stand
ready to do the job.

Brett Peruzzi
Senior Documentation Manager
PNC Financial Services Group
Boston, MA
                                                                         
                                    <<Help authoring tool (HAT) users    
                                    may want to know that ForeFront      
                                    announced                            
                                    today, Jan. 2, that it is "closing   
                                    its doors" effective January 10,     
                                    2002.                                
                                    It is passing its technologies to    
                                    ComponentOne. For the announcements, 
                                    see                                  
                                    http://home.componentone.com//ff.htm 
                                                                         
                                    My firm is still using ForeHelp 3.0, 
                                    which is designed to work with       
                                    Micosoft's Windows 3.1/95 WinHelp.   
                                    We've been happy with the product.   
                                    As we are planning to put help info  
                                    on-line, on a server rather than on  
                                    each client, I was about to talk up  
                                    our upgrading to ForeHelp 5.0, which 
                                                                         
                                    adopted WinHelp and the Windows      
                                    98/2000 Help 1.x standard. A product 
                                                                         
                                    compatible with Help 2.x (not        
                                    ForeHelp 5) would provide support    
                                    for XML and                          
                                    DHTML.                               
                                                                         
                                    A tip of the HAT to a solid product, 
                                                                         
                                                                         
                                    Regards, Alan Oslick                 
                                    aoslick -at- hteinc -dot- com                   
                                                                         
                                    P.S. I had queried ForeFront as to   
                                    whether they planned to release a    
                                    ForeHelp version that would          
                                    incorporate the prospective          
                                    Microsoft Help 2.x                   
                                    standards. Their response, a notice  
                                    of their demise. And, oh yes, I      
                                    checked with Eric before posting     
                                    this message to ensure that this     
                                    message                              
                                    wouldn't be regarded as an advt.>>   
                                                                         
                                                                         







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