RE: what's the going price

["Richard L Hamilton" <dick -at- rlhamilton -dot- net>]

Steve,

I use:

- emacs (nxml mode) to edit xml (I also sometimes use oXygen,
  a commercial product, so I'm not 100% pure:). Incidentally,
  for what I normally do, emacs is fine, but if you're not an
  expert with some of the other XML/XSL tools, oXygen does a
  really nice job of integrating them, and it makes editing
  XML really easy.

- saxon and xsltproc to process xsl stylesheets.

- The DocBook xsl stylesheets to process DocBook instances and
  generate HTML, fo (input to fop), ePub, and various help formats.

- fop to generate pdf. Here's another case where I also use a
  commercial product, RenderX. fop is useful, and getting better
  all the time, but RenderX gives me some features that are a
  must for book publication (esp. extensions, without which I
  could not do an acceptable index). If you're not doing books,
  or your indexes are simple, you may be able to get away with fop.

- Open Office for everything I used to use Microsoft Office for.

- Inkscape for tasks you might use Illustrator for.

- Gimp for tasks you might use Photoshop for.

  Neither one of the last two is as fully capable as its Adobe
  counterpart, but then I'm not as capable, nor do I have the
  same needs, as the artists who use those tools. To touch up
  graphics, create flyers, etc., they work very well. When I
  need professional artwork, I go to pros.

- Calibre to work with eBooks. I use it to convert ePub to mobi,
  but it will do all sorts of eBook conversions.

While I still use Windows for some things, I also use Linux,
Evolution (mailer), Audacity (for audio), and gnucash (quicken/
quickbooks).

Not all of these are as capable or as well-documented as their
commercial counterparts, but they are all functional and help
me keep my expenses down.

Best Regards,
Dick Hamilton
---------------------------------
XML Press
XML for Technical Communicators
http://xmlpress.net
(970) 231-3624 


> -----Original Message-----
> From: Janoff, Steve [mailto:Steve -dot- Janoff -at- Teradata -dot- com] 
> Sent: Tuesday, January 05, 2010 12:18 PM
> To: Richard L Hamilton; Techwr-l
> Subject: RE: what's the going price
> 
> 
> Dick,
> 
> What open source tools are you using right now?  Be 
> interesting to look
> into them.
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Steve 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: techwr-l-bounces+steve -dot- janoff=teradata -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
> [mailto:techwr-l-bounces+steve -dot- janoff=teradata -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com]
> On Behalf Of Richard L Hamilton
> Sent: Tuesday, January 05, 2010 10:22 AM
> To: 'Techwr-l'
> Subject: RE: what's the going price
> 
> > 
> > You were probably thinking the same thing I was, that half 
> the people 
> > on the list would be dropping whatever they were doing and going 
> > online to see where they could get the upgrade for $250 less. :)
> >
> And some of us, like me, were thinking how nice it is to be working in
> XML with open source tools and not needing to contemplate more than a
> grand for a software upgrade:-).
> 
> Yes, I know there's no replacement for the tools required to get your
> job done, I'm just happy that at this moment, I don't need that
> particular tool:).
> 
> Dick Hamilton
> ---------------------------------
> XML Press
> XML for Technical Communicators
> http://xmlpress.net
> (970) 231-3624 
> 


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