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Subject:Re: Technical Writer Education From:George Mena <George -dot- Mena -at- ESSTECH -dot- COM> Date:Fri, 15 May 1998 14:05:00 -0700
Janice,
The Unix side of the world really brings up an issue for me, namely how
I can get my hands on a secondhand Sun 3/60 with hard disk and some
decent programs. On the one hand, I know getting the secondhand
hardware is possible, even if it's not very well-publicized (and I wish
it were). Finding the programs to run on it, however, is another
matter. Where would I get an earlier version of Applix or Island Draw,
for example? Or a good shell compiler, that sort of thing?
I've got this *very* old AT&T box, a Model 7300 Unix PC circa 1987
before AT&T sold its computer unit to NCR. Picked it up at a swap meet
at the Cow Palace for $100, came with old System V, ver. 3.51. Would
love to find other software I could put on it besides the default suite
I picked up when I bought the box. Through some very long digging, I
did learn the 7300 is 68000-based, 1 MB of RAM and a 20 MB hard disk.
Great for learning basic Unix commands from eons ago, but totally
worthless by today's standards unless the main board, 5.25 inch floppy
drive and hard disk are swapped out. And it's not like the folks I
bought it from really know that much about it, either. The folks I
bought it from were part of Rev. Cecil Williams's computer group at
Glide Memorial Church in the Tenderloin!
Finding good secondhand Unix hardware and software is a problem for me,
so if you know who's got some of both -- or even technical specs or
software on the Model 7300 -- I'd be most appreciative. =D
Mucho de grass ; )
George
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Janice Gelb [SMTP:janiceg -at- MARVIN -dot- ENG -dot- SUN -dot- COM]
> Sent: Friday, May 15, 1998 12:38 PM
> To: TECHWR-L -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU
> Subject: Re: Technical Writer Education
>
> George Mena wrote:
> >
> > At the bare minimum, all tech writers should have knowledge of
> Microsoft
> > Word, and many do.
> >
> > After that, it can get a little murky because technical writing is a
> > rather diverse occupation that supports a great many industries,
> both
> > high-tech and rest-of-world. For the Unix-based programs, ask one
> of
> > the folks here from Sun Microsystems.
> >
>
> Well, for one thing, we don't require anyone to know Microsoft
> Word :->
>
> Usual technical writer applications on UNIX include FrameMaker,
> FrameMaker+SGML, Interleaf, or Adept*Editor. To my knowledge,
> there *are* no really good graphics programs. We use something
> called IslandDraw, or the graphics part of the Applix office
> suite.
>
> -- Janice
>
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