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RE: Programming / scripting languages in tech-writing
Subject:RE: Programming / scripting languages in tech-writing From:Michele Marques <msmarques -at- rogers -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Tue, 07 May 2002 07:21:19 -0400
Bruce Byfield wrote:
>Does anybody else on the list use a programming or scripting language
> in their work? If so, which one? And what sort of tasks do you use
> them for?"
Word VBA macro programming -
(1) creating templates for non-techwriters. Usually when they start one
of my templates they are prompted for information that populates part of
the document. I may also include a toolbar with additional commands.
(2) cleaning up text files. I once had to regularly convert between two
formats... as format "A" was updated and the utility I used was not, I
ended up using Word macro programming to script the cleanup of the
converted file in format "B".
Javascript, Perl, ColdFusion -
Javasscript and Perl are mostly for my web development work. The
ColdFusion is just a few ColdFusion commands I used for the web-based
help for a ColdFusion web-based app. Among other things, I used this for
single-sourcing some of the help pages.
Other programming/scripting languages -
Well, I haven't used anything else that recently, but I have used them
for non-techwriting jobs (or the non-techwriting part of jobs) and for
hobbies. For example, when I worked at a business school, one of my
duties was writing SPSS programs (statistical programming package) to
analyze course evaluations. For a few years I used to run a text-based
internet game. I no longer remember why I used awk (fix the database?),
but I did modify the server's c-code to include my own mods. And let's
not forget that long ago I worked as a programmer.
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