Re: optimum platform for framemaker?

[Martha J Davidson <editrix -at- SLIP -dot- NET>]

At 10:37 AM 7/22/99 -0400, Gil Yaker asked:
>
>I want to try and start messing around in frame maker for personal
>experience, I have it for my Mac and my NeXT, I know it's also available
>for various unix flavors and microsoft platforms. I have an IPX (sparc) box
>that I could also set up too.  Anyway, from people who've used Frame on a
>multitude of platforms, do you guys have any preference, separate from the
>OS platform itself??

I've been using FrameMaker since version 1.11b in 1988, on pretty much
every platform it's been available for, with the exception of NeXT.  Given
the choice, I'd choose one of the UNIX flavors, because of the original
features that got cut in the process of porting Frame to the Mac and then
to Windows.

What I miss the most when I use Frame on my Mac at home and on the NT
box at work is the ability to record macros.  That's why there's a keyboard
equivalent of every single thing you can do with a mouse in Frame.  When I
use UNIX versions, the first thing I usually do is create a few macros for
some
of my favorite keystroke combinations, like em and en dashes.

When the folks at Frame Technology ported Frame to the Mac (at about version
3.0, I think), they decided that Mac users didn't need 3 particular
features (the
assumption was that there was already Mac software that did these things),
and this would make the port easier.  Therefore, Mac users don't get the
built-in
screen capture function that was in the original UNIX version (is it still
there?),
or the ability to record macros, or the right-button popup context menu of
common functions, since there's no right mouse button on a Mac.  These
omissions propagated to the Windows port, but the right-buttom popup
menu was restored somewhere along the way.

Since I don't have either keystroke capture software or a screen shot
program on my Mac at home, I still miss these omitted features.  I use
FullShot for screen captures on NT, but I wish I could record a sequence
of keystrokes into a macro when I find myself doing something several
times in a row.

So, that's my take on it, combined with a bit of historical perspective.
Given the option, I'd choose to use Frame on a UNIX box any time I
could.

martha

--
Martha Jane {Kolman | Davidson}
Dances With Words
mailto:editrix -at- slip -dot- net

"If I am not for myself, who will be for me?
 If I am only for myself, what am I?
 If not now, when?"
        --Hillel, "Mishna, Sayings of the Fathers 1:13"


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