RE: Automating docs compilation in the software build process

[David Handy <david -dot- handy -at- automsoft -dot- com>]

Dick,
Looks like I didn't make myself quite clear. 
Our product source files -- a gagillion or so C++ and VB files -- are not
install-ready and definitely are _not_ shipped. Our build process compiles
these files into installable software. At the moment, the docs are distinct
from this process -- I "build" them myself as described earlier (e.g.
building PDF books from multiple Frame files) and add the customer-ready
docs as an exceptional case to the build process. This is what my developer
buddies want to regularise, so that all the source files and shippable files
are treated the same way. The main reason is the build speed at our internal
deadline times. I have no problem with the proposal in principle, but I
suspect there will be banana skins...

dh

-----Original Message-----
From: Dick Margulis [mailto:margulis -at- mail -dot- fiam -dot- net]
Sent: Friday, May 16, 2003 5:32 PM
To: TECHWR-L; David Handy
Subject: Re: Automating docs compilation in the software build process


David,

If the build is really the shipping product--and assuming I understand you
correctly--then what your developers have requested is that you deliver doc
source files _to the customer_, which is clearly a change in deliverables
that has to be approved at your company's management level. Essentially,
it's a form of giving away the cow, and your developers cannot just decide
on their own that this is a good thing to do.

I think if you put it in those terms, they'll get it.

Dick 

David Handy <david -dot- handy -at- automsoft -dot- com> wrote:

>Currently I provide all docs in a
>finished state, i.e. I compile the master help file from several HTML Help
>projects, build the PDFs from Framemaker, apply relevant security settings,
>and check the lot into VSS for inclusion in the build. The developers
>dislike this because the whole shooting match takes me a half-hour, whereas
>with automated scripts it could be done in moments -- they contend -- on
our
>Build machine. 
>
>Has anyone had any experience doing this? Are there major snags? 
>

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