[austechwriter] Re: Word v. XML
- From: "HALL Bill" <bill.hall@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: "John Murphy" <john.murphy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,<austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 8 Aug 2003 13:10:24 +1000 (EST)
John,
It is only easy to be disciplined if you own the style and the document!
As soon as you start sharing all hell breaks loose!
Most of our work has been done using or modifying the Def Aust DTDs.
These are available to the Web (http://www.defence.gov.au/dps/) and
reasonably well documented. If you are interested in DocBook expertise,
try xml-doc@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx which is primarily a user group for DocBook,
although they do often discuss more generic XML documentation issues.
Personally, I remain a bit suspicious of DocBook because of its reputed
complexity, and because it uses a recursive structure for paragraph
hierarchies. I much prefer to set limits on how deep you can make a
hierarchy as this simplifies building output formats and keeps certain
writers under control. I much prefer the explicitly defined paragraph
hierarchy of the Def Aust DTDs.
What I recommend is that you get a good SGML or XML manual that
describes how to build DTDs, and dissect those available publicly, and
plagiarise what is good about them to fit your own house requirements.
For example both the Def Aust and DocBook DTDs provide elements and
attributes no one ever uses. Eliminate them, and the DTD you have to
manage and build formats for is much simpler.
Also, even if you have to add more elements or attributes later, as long
as they are added to your basic structure without changing the logic you
started with, your existing documents will be quite happy in the revised
DTD.
We are an Adobe FrameMaker house. (Allette Systems and Absolute Data)
provide excellent local support and training. Absolute Data even
provides readymade FrameMaker Templates (free) for the core Def Aust
5629a DTD. Other excellent commercial editors are Arbor Text's Epic
Editor and Corel's XMetaL. If we were starting from scratch we would
certainly give a good thorough look at the Melbourne developed
SpeedLegal SmartPrecedent (XML based). When we last looked at
SmartPrecedent as a potential contract authoring environment it was
almost ready to go forward as a precedents based technical writing
environment using any arbitrary DTD (tested with Def Aust 5629 and
DocBook) but I didn't have time to chase it further and our tech authors
were and are quite comfortable with their existing toolkit, thank you.
SmartPrecedent could well end up being best-of-breed. This week there
has been an excellent discussion of free and open source XML editors on
the xml-doc@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx forum.
I can't offer much advice on output formatting, given that we deliver
our documentation products either as raw SGML or automatically rendered
HTML via our content management system. Our WYSIWYG FrameMaker
environment (also used for internal printing requirements) was based on
Absolute Data's and then modified to fit our homebrewed DTDs.
Regards,
Bill Hall
Documentation Systems Analyst
Head Office, Engineering
Tenix Defense
Williamstown, Vic. 3016
Phone: 03 9244 4820
Email:bill.hall@xxxxxxxxx
URL: http://www.tenix.com
Honorary Research Fellow
Knowledge Management Lab
School of Information Management & Systems
Monash University
Caulfield East, Vic. 3145
Phone: 03 9903 1883
Email: william.hall@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
URL: http://www.sims.monash.edu.au/research/km/
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-----Original Message-----
From: John Murphy [mailto:john.murphy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]
Sent: Friday, 8 August 2003 11:43 AM
To: austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [austechwriter] Word v. XML
Bill, I genuflect before your awesome discipline. I mean that sincerely.
I agree that 'keeping it simple' and using 'save as' are two keys to
successful word usage.
I am hoping to migrate my company's manuals to an xml environment Does
anybody use DocBook? I need to think about training myself this year
before presenting the migration plan to the board next year. Any
suggestions for training on xml? I will go to summer school if I have
to.
John Murphy
Documentation and Quality
Dilithium Networks
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