socaltech.com has an interview with Mike Hamilton, formerly of Macromedia/eHelp/Blue Sky, now with MadCap Software. The interview includes some information about Flare, the RoboHelp replacement tool that MadCap is developing. Flare is billed as an XML-based authoring tool. Mike Hamilton describes the competitive landscape like … Read More

But then you read stuff like this recent gem on the wwp-users list: Date: Mon, 09 May 2005 17:06:02 -0000 From: complete message Subject: Help!!! Hello everybody, I signed in this gropu 1 month ago because I needed to do my report intership about framemaker … Read More

Sean McGrath argues that the separation of content into files and directories is an artificial one that should go away. ITworld.com – Books/chapters and directories/files – dichotomies considered harmful Imagine a world in which the file system explorer is the top level application. It manages … Read More

Laura Lemay writes in her blog: You know, I was just the other day thinking that as a knowledge worker, PostScript wasn’t fulfilling all my document workflow needs. And that what I really needed was a Microsoft version of PostScript. Based on XML. Yeah. That’s … Read More

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 … Read More

Somebody rewrote the FAQ regarding the Adobe/Macromedia merger: Daring Fireball: Translation From PR-Speak to English of Selected Portions of Adobe’s ‘FAQ’ Regarding Their Acquisition of Macromedia

The Adobe/Macromedia is now being described as a content management play: The friendly acquisition of Macromedia by Adobe bodes well for both companies: Adobe has been perceived as lacking direction in recent times. It has steadily built up its document management capability, helped by the … Read More

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 … Read More

Have you thought about the evolution of publishing recently? Here’s someone who has: Typewriting (like most handwriting) is a process of applying ink to paper and making the text readable — in more or less one operation (by pressing down keys, letters are punched on … Read More

I’ve been skeptical about starting a blog. Then I read this article (Updated: January 2017 to fix link)–a fascinating discussion of how digital publishing affects text cycles. My comments in the detailed post, next.