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.
Subject:Re: Any demands for any of the following: From:"Mike O." <obie1121 -at- yahoo -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com> Date:Tue, 5 Jul 2005 09:13:54 -0700 (PDT)
On a related note, I was just noticing how many open-source tools I am
using on my current gigs. I'm not noticing any direct demand for these
tools in the sense of seeing them required in job specs. In fact, there
are usually fewer than two dozen jobs posted nationally that require
DocBook, most of them at Red Hat. But there are lots of benefits that
are more oblique.
Prior to my current gigs I had some downtime, and I used the time to
set up a DocBook toolchain. When a client called and asked if I could
do Eclipse help, I said "No problem" even though I hadn't done it
before, because I knew that was one of the DocBook outputs. I sent them
a sample by the end of the day, and got the job. When another client
called and asked if I could doc C++ and Java, I fired up doxygen and
sent them an HTML framework of their own code the next day.
I bought a new laptop that came with Windows, but I didn't really feel
like spending even more money on software, so I loaded up on Windows
versions of open-source tools, all of which I believe are also
available for Linux. So far I haven't missed the old MS/Adobe/Whatever
tools at all. I'm using:
OpenOffice.org
DocBook
doxygen
dia
PuTTY
Firefox
DBDesigner
7-Zip
GIMP (much improved these days!!)
Gaim
and probably a few more I forgot.
Mike O.
__________________________________
Yahoo! Mail Mobile
Take Yahoo! Mail with you! Check email on your mobile phone. http://mobile.yahoo.com/learn/mail
Now Shipping -- WebWorks ePublisher Pro for Word! Easily create online
Help. And online anything else. Redesigned interface with a new
project-based workflow. Try it today! http://www.webworks.com/techwr-l
Doc-To-Help 2005 now has RoboHelp Converter and HTML Source: Author
content and configure Help in MS Word or any HTML editor. No
proprietary editor! *August release. http://www.componentone.com/TECHWRL/DocToHelp2005
---
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 lisa -at- techwr-l -dot- com -dot- Visit http://www.techwr-l.com/techwhirl/ for more resources and info.
