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Opinion

Why XML and structured authoring is a tough transition

Found on technicalwriter’s blog:

There are several applications that incorporate features for DITA use, such as XMetal and Altova Authentic, but how much value do they provide? (Looking over the online documentation for XMetal, you will see some pretty shaky formatting and copyfitting.)

There may well be formatting and copyfitting issues. Wouldn’t surprise me at all. But talk about missing the forest for the trees!

DITA/XML/structured authoring are important because they improve how information is stored. To question their value because somebody produced documentation using them that doesn’t look so great…let’s try an analogy:

Last week, I went to a restaurant and the food was terrible. I looked in the kitchen and saw Calphalon pots and pans. I conclude that you should not buy Calphalon because the food they produce is terrible.

The quality of your food is determined by things such as the quality of the ingredients and the skill of the chef. The pan you choose does contribute — it helps to use the right size and a high-quality pan, but to dismiss DITA because one example doesn’t look quite right is pretty much like dismissing Calphalon because somebody once cooked something that didn’t taste very good in it.

PS I like Calphalon. And I have produced my share of problematic entrees.
PPS DITA is not right for everybody.

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Opinion

chutzpah

Look in the dictionary, see a reference to MadCap Software. Their latest:

MadCap Blaze is the heir apparent to Adobe FrameMaker.

I haven’t seen Blaze, and as far as I know, it is not yet available in beta. Therefore, this claim seems just a tiny bit premature.

Also, Blaze is going to have tight integration with XML Paper Specification, otherwise known as “PDF-Killer.”

I blogged about XPS early on, when it was code-named “Metro.” I’m very skeptical about XPS; dislodging PDF will take a huge effort. I’m puzzled by MadCap’s focus on XPS.

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Humor

The end of the world is approaching

What other explanation is there for Adobe, nicknamed The Cone of Silence, making this announcement:

If you are planning to attend the [STC] Conference [in Minneapolis], you now have added incentive. We will be providing technology sneak peeks of the features of the next versions of FrameMaker, RoboHelp and Captivate.

For details, see Vivek Jain’s blog entry on the Adobe TechComm blog. No mention of a requirement for a non-disclosure agreement, so I assume any information shared at these sessions will be public.

I won’t call Adobe “transparent” just yet, but this reduction in opacity is quite welcome.

Update (May 3, 2007): Over at Core Dump, a post on the same topic entitled Hell is Freezing Over.

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Tools

Writing better XSL

Jeni Tennison has a new blog. Her latest post has tips on when to use template matching, named templates, and for-each statements.

In my experience, most people who are new to XSL overuse for-each loops, because they most closely resemble familiar programming constructs.

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