Honor among….er, consultants
Many of our clients are surprised when they discover that I have close working relationships and friendships with other consultants. They seem astonished to discover that we don’t all despise each other.
Opinion
Internationalizing XML
Via Cafe con Leche (Elliotte Rusty Harold), the first public working draft of Best Practices for XML Internationalization has been released by the W3C Internalization Tag Set Working Group.
Standard for user assistance?
There’s growing interest in establishing a standard for user assistance. Microsoft’s announcement that Vista will not include a new help viewer may be largely responsible.
Non-technical problems
Norm Walsh has posted a provocative discussion of DITA and DocBook on his blog (a writeup of a presentation he delivered at the recent DITA 2006 conference).
To DITA or not to DITA?
In a recent discussion on the STCCIC-SIG list, Mark Baker of Analecta Communications provided an excellent analysis of DocBook, DITA, and how they are not the same thing as XML. (The discussion is reproduced here with Mark’s permission.)
Printing and economics
Before the invention of movable type, book publishing was technologically possible, but prohibitively expensive. Printing involved carving the contents of a page onto a wooden block — backwards — and then basically stamping that ink-covered block onto a page. Each wooden block was usable only for a single, specific page. Movable type, developed by Johannes Gutenberg and others, took the granularity of print technology from the page down to the character level. This innovation changed the economics of printing, and led to affordable books and the spread of literacy.
Joe Welinske on STC localized dues structure
This morning, Joe Welinske of WritersUA posted an excellent assessment of the STC’s localized dues structure to the ReformSTC list. I’ve reproduced the article here.
Open-Source Sunrise?
Jim Rapoza at eWeek had an interesting suggestion in regard to the Adobe/Macromedia merger. He notes that the sorting and sifting that follows most software mergers leads to some products fading away. Some actually get a funeral but often there is simply a loss of interest. Rapoza suggests turning over these orphans to the open-source community.
XML-based authoring versus structured authoring
socaltech.com has an interview with Mike Hamilton, formerly of Macromedia/eHelp/Blue Sky, now with MadCap Software.
Clip, clop…RoboHelp rides off into the sunset
At the WritersUA conference last March, Macromedia cancelled participation in the trade show at the last minute. Immediately, rumors began flying (although in fairness we have to say that the Adobe/Macromedia merger was not one of the myriad conspiracy theories that emerged). Before the conference ended, a content-free Macromedia statement appeared in a RoboHelp forum at Macromedia’s site.
Development, yes. But content management?
The Adobe/Macromedia is now being described as a content management play:
Angst about Adobe/Macromedia
Some have suggest that the merged company be renamed. “Macrobe” appears to be the leading contender.
There is lots of anxiety about software, especially where the two product lines intersect. Illustrator or Freehand? GoLive or DreamWeaver? I would bet on the tool with better market share, which would be bad news for Freehand (Macromedia) and GoLive (Adobe).
You had me at “structural markup”…
Have you thought about the evolution of publishing recently? Here’s someone who has:
