atw: Re: Is structured authoring really a paradigm shift?
- From: Hedley Finger <hfinger@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 15 Sep 2008 11:31:45 +1000
Naomi:
Being from a programming background originally, I equate 'xml' mostly
with 'object-oriented' - a style of programming where code is
developed in such a way as to optimise re-usability of each 'object'
of code (I know, over-simplified!). So when I've heard 'structured
authoring' bandied about, I've assumed a similar concept.
Then you would like DITA, which implements a debased class/subclass and
objects approach to documentation development in XML and content
management to easily:
@ reuse content fragments in different publications
@ restructure publications by changing sequence and nesting level of
topics
@ control visibility of content fragments down to the word level to
suit product variants, different readerships, different legal
environments, etc.
@ manage versioning
@ manage branching to allow parallel development
@ allow for multiple authors to access the same topic file and use
diffing and merging to integrate different changes
@ output to a variety of presentations, including local HTML-based
help, server delivered internet help, PDF, and a variety of help
formats, including Eclipse Java-run help across platforms, Microsoft
HTML Help, JavaHelp, etc.
@ translate documents and sanity-check translations back with the
master set of files.
As formatting is completely separated from content, publications can be
quickly redesigned by changing XSL or CSS stylesheets, and publications
for different readerships can have the appropriate "engineering" or
"marketing" look. There is no need to update formats embedded in legacy
files.
A base level of different topic types ("classes") of reference, task,
concept, and (general) topic can be and have been specialised
("subclassed") to produce other topic types such as glossary, api-ref,
etc. Even specialised topics can be freely interchanged (interoperate)
as any specialisation is presented as an ancestor document so that it
can still be understood even though some formatting is lost.
At last count there are about 10 different editors that support DITA
with special code-completion, etc., about 8 CMSs, and a variety of
XSL:FO formatters to generate output.
There is a gotcha: this is only for large documentation teams
producing large quantities of content that can be re-used for products
which share features, for multiple readerships, and for multiple markets
with different regulatory regimes. It also helps if you have a
technical wizard ("nerd" to the snobs on this list) to maintain the
system. The economies derive from scale, re-use, and simplified
management. That is, the capital costs of setting up are high but the
running costs are low, for overall reduced costs in the long run.
A couple of Australian companies and government departments are using
this successfully, and Adobe have switched nearly all their
documentation to DITA. You can no longer get print manuals for many
Adobe products, which come only with local on-line help. You can get
free PDFs after some effort but the formatting is no longer of the high
standard of former publications, largely because they are seen primarily
as back-up to the real documentation in the help. Most of Adobe's
documentation is now available free to all comers on the website
through any browser.
Regards,
Hedley
--
Hedley Finger
28 Regent Street Camberwell VIC 3124 Australia
Tel. +61 3 9809 1229 Fax. (call phone first)
Mob. (cell) +61 412 461 558
Email. "Hedley Finger" <hfinger@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
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