Re: Programming Languages for Technical Communication

[Mark Baker <mbaker -at- OMNIMARK -dot- COM>]

Kris Olberg writes:

>>It will no longer be enough to
>>deliver static information, we will have to deliver information with
>>behavior. And behavior means programming.
>
>
>My take is that we're at the high point (or low point, depending on your
>perspective) of a cycle in which good tools for information delivery are
>requiring writers who are also semi-literate to literate programmers.
>Looking to the past as an indicator of what the future holds, tools that
>require medium to heavy programming skills will lose. Examples:
>
>- Word and WordPerfect. While Word became an excellent WYSIWYG word
>processing tool that virtually eliminated the need to interpret "codes" or
>"tags," WordPerfect refused to let go of them. We all know who won that
>battle.

This misses the point. I am not arguing that you need programming skills to
create tools to create information products. I am arguing that information
products themselves are now aquiring behavior; the ability to respond to
user input and stored information about the user and to customize
information for that user. This means that information products are becoming
programs (rather than just data) and that writing and programming are
equally necessary skills in creating them. Unlike the trend to WYSIWYG in
data manipulation tools, atempts to create visual programming tools have met
with no significant success, except for UI building. Programming logic is
still written in text editors and there is no reason to suppose it will not
contine to be. Even if visual programming tools were to take over, however,
the skills of programming -- designing appropriate application logic and
data structures -- would still be required.

>>Creating a new document will be a matter of
>>selecting, customizing,  and ordering existing material from well managed
>>sources. This again mean programming.
>
>Yes. But tools evolve, and products that reduce the complexity of the task
>will win the war.

But the tools for database extraction and reporting are already very mature.
And guess what -- they require programming. The fact of the matter is that
visual tools are good for simple problems, but for expressing complex
business logic, appropriate programming languages are the best tools.

>>Writers who cannot program content management and information delivery
>>applications will soon find themselves either out of a job or playing a
>>reduced role.
>
>Writers who cannot write have a more serious deficit, don't they?
>

Writers who cannot write non-linear material will be at the worst deficit.
We have had paper as the sole significant medium for so long we tend to
identify writing for paper with writing itself. Writers in the future are
going to have to design the data structures of content management systems
and then write the information components that populate those structures.


>>The
>>most powerful and easiest to learn and use is OmniMark
>
>Ah ... a biased opinion have you? Well, good luck with your product. You'd
>should hope that OmniMark's strategists took some history classes and
>learned something. (Who said, "The only thing we learned from history is
>that we don't learn anything from history"?)
>

Well, I took two degrees in history, and part of what I learned is that the
worst mistake you can make is assuming that the change you are experiencing
now is just another case of the same kind of change you experienced
recently. ;-)

---
Mark Baker
Manager, Corporate Communications
OmniMark Technologies Corporation
1400 Blair Place
Gloucester, Ontario
Canada, K1J 9B8
Phone: 613-745-4242
Fax: 613-745-5560
Email mbaker -at- omnimark -dot- com