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RE: What Program Do You Use for Software Documentation?
Subject:RE: What Program Do You Use for Software Documentation? From:"Leonard C. Porrello" <Leonard -dot- Porrello -at- SoleraTec -dot- com> To:<quills -at- airmail -dot- net>, <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com> Date:Thu, 23 Oct 2008 10:23:10 -0700
Was the meaning of "multiple path transforming tool" transparent to
anyone here?
Google didn't return even a single hit on "multiple path transforming
tool", and the semantical problems with phrase also disqualify the claim
that it is a legitimate "technical description". It reads as if the
thing being transformed is "multiple paths", and that doesn't make any
sense. Come on, admit it, you made it up.
Nevertheless, I was just giving you a hard time about writing for end
users, and I am willing to believe that there is something behind the
distinction you made. I am curious to know what it is. Why did you
suggest that H&M et al are not truly single-sourcing tools?
Leonard
-----Original Message-----
From: quills -at- airmail -dot- net [mailto:quills -at- airmail -dot- net]
Sent: Wednesday, October 22, 2008 6:19 PM
To: Leonard C. Porrello; techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Subject: RE: What Program Do You Use for Software Documentation?
A multiple path transforming tool is any tool that will transform a
file from one format to another, or several other formats. For
example, from the binary format of a FrameMaker file to SGML or XML;
or Flare taking a Word file and transforming it to HTML or XML.
And technical descriptions that confound the casual reader can be
perfectly clear to anyone who shares your technical education and
vocabulary. How you describe something to a software engineer who is
involved in coding, isn't the way you would describe the same
function to someone whose experience and knowledge is on the level of
most consumer software users.
;)
At 4:30 PM -0700 10/22/08, Leonard C. Porrello wrote:
>Wow. Really? Are you serious? Have you actually ever used any of these
>tools? Perhaps you are working on your own private language?
>
>Of H&M, EC Software says, "Help & Manual 5 is a single-source help
>authoring and content management system for both single and
multi-author
>editing."
>
>Of Flare, Madcap states, "Flare - The New Industry Benchmark in
>Multi-Channel, Single-Source Publishing."
>
>Among Adobe's list of "Top Features" for RoboHelp "Single sourcing" is
>listed sixth.
>
>Of Author-it, Author-it states, "Over 3500 clients in 50 countries are
>content in the knowledge that they have chosen the most reliable and
>proven system for authoring, content management, language translation
>management and single-source publishing to multiple outputs."
>
>Wikipedia (of all things) defines "single-sourcing" as follows: "Single
>source publishing, also known as single sourcing, allows the same
>content to be used in different documents or in various formats"
>(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single-sourcing)
>
>But perhaps you mean something different from the rest of the world
when
>you say "single-sourcing".
>
>And what the heck is a "multiple plath transforming tool"? Did you mean
>multiple PATH transforming tool? If so, no worries about the typo. I
>often make them myself. But nevertheless, what the heck is a "multiple
>path transforming tool." Please, please tell me that you aren't writing
>for end users.
>
>Leonard
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