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Subject:SGML Panacea or What? From:Vince Putman <PUTMV -at- MAIL -dot- SYNTRON -dot- COM> Date:Mon, 13 Feb 1995 08:25:40 CST
Fellow Writers and Editors,
What TechWriter tool(s) will you be using in the electronic publishing
age? Will the tool also produce paper publications, when required? I
remember the days of tagging text like SGML/HTML and running it
through a text processor on the main frame. Seems like we do need
some sort of common tagging system that will serve all forms of
publishing. But is tagging the best answer? Can one *InfoDataBase*
be used? Some say NO WAY, I say it must be the ONLY WAY. . .
Our company is just coming out of the info black hole of the past.
And, like most companies, information for customers and employees is
considered an overhead operational expense with little ROI. (This is
a good part of the excess baggage we carry as writers. Right?) Your
comments on this subject will be used as empirical reference info for
my project; an attempt to access where we are going from where we are
now.
I have spent a lifetime educating management about the TechWriter
product, and how it must be a vital part of what the company sells.
We all know there is tangible ROI in our product, but it is always
obscured by the hardware and/or software acceptance. They do not see
that this acceptance is strongly related to the info we write. And,
also on how we present it to the audience. Which brings me to back to
the SGML question.
How we will present info to the audience in the future and will our
company hardware and software support the method selected. This is a
question evolving millions, success, and failure. Last, but not
least, is my cotton-picken job -- which will cease to exist if I fail
to jump on the right bandwagon!
Vince Putman | Most people think new ideas are a
putmv -at- mail -dot- syntron -dot- com | criticism of the old!
713-647-7139 Houston, TX | Aka, Eschew Gratuitous Obfuscation
