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Subject:Re: Single Sourcing and Hackos From:Chris Kowalchuk <chris -at- BDK -dot- NET> Date:Sat, 12 Jun 1999 12:43:16 -0400
Just wanted to pick up on one point; Mary Deaton said:
> What puzzles me is how slow the people who sell publishing tools to
> technical writers are to address this issue and solve it!
>
Which causes me to wonder, do people sell publishing tools to technical
writers? What I'm getting at (and this is just speculation), is that
technical writers as a group may not figure much in most software
companies' marketing plans. Microsoft products are sold to managers and
executives on the pillars of: universality, ease-of-use, compatibility
with the operating system you are probably using etc. (their claims, not
mine) -- all productivity and control issues; Frame et al. are sold as
publishing tools, certainly, but not necessarily to technical writers as
the main target audience. Managing information (data, text) before the
layout phase is not what DTP software generally does.
I think Mary may have a point when she speaks of looking in the
direction of document management etc. I had a preliminary look at
Documentum a year or so ago, and saw some potential there. It requires
some customization, but apparently it can allow you to compile a diverse
set of source documents into a "virtual document" which can be printed.
I don't know how much control you have over the layout/formatting of the
virtual document, but I like the idea of being able to
assemble/reassemble documents from a variety of sources. I think
products such as Lotus Notes might be of interest as well. As someone
mentioned earlier, the final "single source" solution will probably
require some sort of database engine used in combination with layout
tools at the end. Right now, the case probably is that the databases
don't publish very well (although I get the impression you can do almost
anything with Notes if you have enough time and money and add-ons), and
the publishing software doesn't manage data very well, and while the two
are moving in one another's direction, it may be that the impetus for it
is not all that strong. Probably because nobody is trying to design the
ultimate single-source tech-writing tool (because single-source tech
writers a have not been identified as a lucrative target market). And as
others have mentioned, it really is a question of careful organization
and structuring. No matter what tool you use in the end, it won't be
able to magically turn a legacy 500-page reference manual into
context-sensitive help. So, even if someone did produce the "Killer TW
App", how many of us would have the knowledge, skill, up-front time in
our production schedules, to use it? (The first two can be aquired, but
that last one could be problematic.)
