RE: XML and Documentation

[Kevin McLauchlan <kmclauchlan -at- safenet-inc -dot- com>]

Stream-of-unconsciousness follows...

Chris Vickery replied to Melissa Nelson
> A great starting point would be to google for DITA business case or
> Docbook business case. You can sell your boss on the fact that your
> productivity will increase as you separate content from 
> formatting, and
> eliminate desktop publishing costs.
> 
> You can create XML content that is then formatted via XSLT to produce
> HTML and help content, and via FO to create PDF output like user
> manuals, all from the same XML. By reusing the same content, you only
> have to update a single source file, and it is updated in each
> deliverable in which it is used.
> 
> To give you an idea of the ease of use, I new about zero 
> about HTML and
> dove straight in to XML Docbook (with the help of a knowledgeable
> teacher). 
> 
> There are lots of resources out there on the advantages of XML. Check
> Oasis.

That's actually the kind of talk that used to put me off, when 
XML first became a hot buzz-word.
I was using FrameMaker, and not even the structured version 
- well, I had it, but I wasn't using those features; I was 
just faking structure. It worked fine. As an only writer, I had 
no real incentive to switch over to something different.

However, by virtue of some corporate take-overs, I got sucked into 
an environment that had lots of Word docs, some of which I inherited. 

Hmm.  I could slowly pull dozens of Word docs into FrameMaker, 
or I could re-work them in Word to make rigorous use of styles, 
or I could muddle along until something better suggested itself.

Inertia won for a while. Then OpenOffice.org hit version 2, 
and "something better" seemed to have arrived. 

It happens that OOo does pretty well everything useful that Word 
does, only better and more reliably. OOo also stores documents in 
an XML format, by default.

So, I'm working as a techwriter, using OOo as a word-processor, 
and just incidentally working in an XML environment. When the 
day comes (if ever) that I switch from OOo, my document source 
files will be ready for another XML front-end to inhale them. 
At that time, I might or might not need to worry about XSLT and 
other formatting frameworks. More likely, they'll be "under-the-hood" 
of whatever authoring tool I'm using at that future time.

The point is that XML as an environment (as opposed to XML as 
a standard)  is now far enough along that one can get 
acquainted with the various X-this-and-that if one is geekish, 
but one can just as easily turn to writerly tools that just 
happen to incorporate the needed functions, transparently, 
while preserving the portability and re-usuability of XML.
In other words, you could switch painlessly without needing 
to lift the skirts of Docbook or DITA or... or... or....

Of course, OOo is also quite mature as a word processor (and 
all those other office tools it includes), including a fair 
simulation of MS Word... So, while it encourages you to be 
rigorous about your writing, and to use Styles for everything, 
it nevertheless permits you to mess it all up with local/spot 
formatting... and it will happily save THAT in XML.

I'm looking for a "discipline" feature/switch in OOo that 
will let me "force" the use of styles, by default, and only 
permit spot-formatting overrides on a per-incident basis, and 
then only after an admission of guilt/evil on the part of the 
person doing the dirty deed.

In fact, I think I'll start a discussion about that right 
now, over on the OOo [users] list.   :-)

Kevin
 

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