Re: Frame&SGML: looking for opinions of current users

[Chris <cud -at- telecable -dot- es>]

Bruce...

Either I don't understand your issue, or I haven't stated my point 
clearly.  There is no reason whatsoever that you must necessarily 
deliver a structured document if you're working in structured mode.  In 
fact, in order to deliver a structured document, you must do the *extra* 
work of importing an EDD into the document.  So if your customers don't 
want structured documents, just implement unstructured templates and 
build the docs in them.  In other words, implement your templates as 
usual, and don't do the extra work of developing and importing an EDD.

I'm a contractor, and I do that all the time.  I actually had to explain 
this *once* to a contracting house I often work for - but when I finally 
delivered, there was no further need for explanation.  If I deliver an 
unstructured document that I created in structured Maker, you will never 
know whether I did it in structured or unstructured mode (for earlier 
versions, FrameMaker or FrameMaker+SGML).  In that sense, the issue just 
isn't there.

You can test this if you wish.  Take one of the docs you believe you 
must edit in unstructured mode.  Edit the doc in structured mode.  Then 
open it again in unstructured mode.  You will see that the doc has 
absolutely no structure information added to it.  Editing the doc in 
structured mode did nothing to the doc that cannot be done in 
unstructured mode.  The *only* way you could have had a "structured" 
effect on the doc would have necessarily begun with importing an EDD 
into the document.  

If you create structured templates, use them for your docs, and deliver 
them to a customer with unstructured Maker, then when that user opens 
the docs he/she will get an alert warning that unstructured Maker will 
strip out the structure information.  That's quite natural since 
unstructured Maker doesn't have the capacity to save any of that 
structured information.  But that *only* happens if you have an EDD 
imported into the document.  If this is the issue, then I believe a 
STRIP STRUCTURE command would solve your issue - you would then be able 
to  *use* structure for your own benefit, and deliver those documents 
for customers who don't want the structure.  Except for this scenario, I 
see no reason that you need to switch from structured to unstructured in 
order to control your output.  And I also think this is unlikely - if 
you've been using structure to edit your documents, then you'll have to 
re-apply the structure if they ever send you their source for changes. 
So you would be better off using templates that don't include an EDD - 
in which case the issue simply isn't there.