TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
Unless I am misunderstanding your meaning, I would remind you of the
original needs that led to the development of SGML in the first place.
A modern aircraft of the time often involved four to six *hundred*
feet of shelfspace for all its repair manuals from hundreds of
different contractors. Each company often had its own methods of
information design for their manuals, and mechanics and maintenance
officers often spent too much time finding the relevant information
they needed...and also often overlooked necessary information that
affected the operational safety of the aircraft.
Originally, then, SGML was designed by a consortium to enable each of
the military services--and then other government departments--to
specify a DTD and thus get their preferred layout for all the
information to be in a standard presentation.
When online resources became available more commonly, in fact, many
DoD and other agencies began to require that updated SGML documents be
kept available from the supplier so that the government could easily
and cheaply update their docs.
Now, of course, XML and related technologies are rapidly supplanting
the last vestiges of the SGML that preceded them. However, the value
of the original observation that a commonality of presentation of
information can be a great aid for understanding and accuracy among
those who must deal with it.
ROBOHELP X5: Featuring Word 2003 support, Content Management, Multi-Author
support, PDF and XML support and much more!
TRY IT TODAY at http://www.macromedia.com/go/techwrl
WEBWORKS FINALDRAFT: New! Document review system for Word and FrameMaker
authors. Automatic browser-based drafts with unlimited reviewers. Full
online discussions -- no Web server needed! http://www.webworks.com/techwr-l
---
You are currently subscribed to techwr-l as:
archiver -at- techwr-l -dot- com
To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-techwr-l-obscured -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Send administrative questions to ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com -dot- Visit http://www.techwr-l.com/techwhirl/ for more resources and info.
