Re: XML-based Help Authoring tools for customized help

[Sean Wheller <seanwhe -at- yahoo -dot- com>]

Mark Baker wrote:

> Which is a very good reason to use it, once you have
reached that stage.
> Fluency is tremendously important to an author.
Fluency with tools is one
> thing, but when you get into markup languages you
are actually intruding
on
> the domain of the language itself. Instead of
writing in English you are
> asking the writer to write in English+Markup and
that request carries with
> it a big hit to their fluency.

Isn't this true of any tool? I remember authors crying
about having to
migrate themselves from Word Perfect to Word. Today
most of those people are
fluent with Word and swear by it. Except when they
bump into a quirk and
then we on the list must endure a barage of very
colorful messages on the
topic of Word.

>
> Trying to work in a language in which you are not
fluent is doubly
> frustrating it hurts both your productivity and your
creativity. The mind
is
> required to engage itself actively at the level of
language, just as it
was
> when you were first learning to speak and to write.
The cognitive overhead
> of working in a language in which you are not fluent
is large and
> burdensome. It takes mental energy away from your
task.

Authors don't seam to have a problem with migrating
from styles in Word to
Tag Elements. The concepts are much the same. I
personally think that the
vobulary used in Docbook is extremely intuitive. There
a few tags that are a
little abstract, but the majority of tags used on a
frequent basis are
easily associated with the logic used in any word
processor. e.g.
set, book, part, chapter, sect1, sect2, ... sect4,
para, itemizedlist,
orderedlist, figure, table etc.
<sidebar>
<para>I do assume their brains have developed beyond
the formative stage you
used as an analogy in the above text. Geeze, just
walking at that age took
all my processing power. :-).</para>
</sidebar>

Consider the following. An experienced word user, when
first arriving on a
project where the techpubs team uses a template with
proprietry style names,
will first have to learn what styles are available and
when they are to be
applied. The same is true for any markup language. The
difference with a
language such as docbook is that it is well
documented, techpub template
styles are in most cases taught by word of mouth. In
addition, because of
the DTD/XSD, markup cannot be misused. The cognitive
overhead is
significantly reduced if the person is trained.

I think that part of the problem is more one of mental
agility, or lack
thereof. Change, learning and adapting are harder
tasks for some people that
for others. However, given the training, most will
adapt and will eventually
learn a new way of writing. Part of this "way" with
XML is to think first,
then write.

The area where most authors have a problem adjusting
seems to be related to
relinquishing the presentation layer while they
author. You mentioned
attachment to tools. Well one attachment and reason
why people like tools
like word is that they get a look and feel for the
page on which they are
writing. I myself found that this was the hardest part
to overcome when
migrating to docbook some 5 years ago. The tag part
was easy.

Related to this is the problem of XSL and
transformation. Many of the
authors like to control the layout, formatting etc.
Using xsl:param and
xsl:template in a customization layer to override the
vanilla design
elements of the distribution is not easy for many
people. Hell, even some
gurus get lost. When you consider that most authors
are accustomed to using
a format dialog where with a few changes and a click
of the OK button
updates the screen and reflects the choices they have
made, you can
understand why this apparent lack of formatting
control is disconcerting.

XML is a blessing and it is a curse, but like Java, ya
gotta luv it!!

Sean Wheller



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