Re: Rant: Giving up on XML

[Janice Gelb <janice -dot- gelb -at- sun -dot- com>]

Bridge, Ian wrote:
> 
> Until now, I was an eager devotee of open source software. I was trying
> to move all our documentation into OpenOffice and other open source
> software. Now, not so much. I no longer trust open source, I find it
> extremely poorly documented from an end-user point of view, and it
> never, ever has all the features I need. The learning curve resembles a
> vertical wall. 
> 

There is no doubt that moving from a WYSIWYG
word processor to a DTD involves a huge
learning curve and a big up-front investment.
It took our tag team over a year meeting weekly
just to modify DocBook enough to suit our needs:
evaluating our docs and getting rid of the elements
we didn't need and forming rules for the ones we
did, and that process is still more or less
continuing seven-plus years later (albeit at a
much reduced rate :-> ) We use a commercial
editor called AdeptEditor from ArborText and paid
for training originally from that company until a
couple of us got trained to be internal trainers
by them.

I can't imagine trying to do this with open source
products as a single person.

Unless you have a compelling reason to switch
(e.g., translation costs, a large doc set that
you want to display in a variety of formats,
etc.), I wouldn't recommend it. The benefits
do exist but as you point out, the investment
is very large in terms of money, time, effort,
and frustration.

-- Janice

***********************************************************
Janice Gelb          | The only connection Sun has with
janice -dot- gelb -at- sun -dot- com  | this message is the return address



^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Create HTML or Microsoft Word content and convert to Help file formats or 
printed documentation. Features include single source authoring, team authoring,
Web-based technology, and PDF output. http://www.DocToHelp.com/TechwrlList

Now shipping: Help & Manual 4 with RoboHelp(r) import! New editor,
full Unicode support. Create help files, web-based help and PDF in up
to 106 languages with Help & Manual: http://www.helpandmanual.com

---
You are currently subscribed to TECHWR-L as archive -at- web -dot- techwr-l -dot- com -dot- 

To unsubscribe send a blank email to 
techwr-l-unsubscribe -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
or visit http://lists.techwr-l.com/mailman/options/techwr-l/archive%40web.techwr-l.com


To subscribe, send a blank email to techwr-l-join -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com

Send administrative questions to admin -at- techwr-l -dot- com -dot-  Visit
http://www.techwr-l.com/techwhirl/ for more resources and info.