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> >First, it is not clear that XML and XSLT constitute the cutting edge
> >of technical communication tools.
>
> Disagree. We just finished an extensive XML/XSLT project and the
> necessary programming was clearly cutting edge.
Well, first of all, that's one data point. It does not prove a trend. I wish
there was a trend. It would be great for the company I work for, and I work
hard at trying to get a trend going. But we ain't there yet, and it's not a
forgone conclusion that we are going to go there.
And secondly, that sort of programming is not cutting edge. You may not have
been exposed to it before, but it has been going on for decades. Markup
predates DTP and has been ticking along nicely all along in the fields where
DTP has never been tenable.
If anything, XSLT is a popularization of markup processing: the low end tool
of limited functionality that is delivered to the general public to help
them do simple jobs themselves. It is a strong indication that markup
processing per se has become manistream rather than cutting edge.
> o XML is accelerating the merger between eng and writer.
>
> Humans have 2 brain hemispheres. We can program _and_ write.
Sure we can do. But specialization is the key to productivity. In the short
term, adventurous shops that move to XML will doubtless involve interested
writers in the programming of the transformation routines. But in the places
where markup technology has been used for over a decade, this is not how
things are run. And frankly, getting writers out of the publishing end of
the business is one of the principal benefits of a move to markup. Even if
writers want to play there, managers should not be letting them.
---
Mark Baker
Stilo Corporation
1900 City Park Drive, Suite 504 , Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, K1J 1A3
Phone: 613-745-4242, Fax: 613-745-5560
Email mbaker -at- ca -dot- stilo -dot- com
Web: http://www.stilo.com
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