Re: Giving up on XML

[Chris Borokowski <athloi -at- yahoo -dot- com>]

Human intelligence seems to rule the day, or human
discipline. While I see the advantages to structured
communication, I don't know if writers can be forced
to use it. At the end of the day, structure comes from
project leadership and oversight.

--- Mike Starr <mikestarr-techwr-l -at- writestarr -dot- com>
wrote:

> It also occurs to me that adopting a tool that
> imposes structured 
> documentation doesn't do anything at all to impose
> consistent structure. I 
> can have a boatload of content that's all structured
> with none of it 
> structurally similar.
> 
> Mike
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> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Chris Borokowski" <athloi -at- yahoo -dot- com>
> To: <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
> Sent: Monday, March 26, 2007 9:04 AM
> Subject: Re: Giving up on XML
> 
> >I was intrigued by this recent writing:
> >
> > "The most commonly-stated reasons for adopting
> > structured documentation techniques include:
> > Automation, Reuse, Single-sourcing, Productivity
> gains
> > (resulting from the above)
> >
> > However, none of these (or other) advantages
> require
> > structuring at all. Non-SGML markup languages such
> as
> > troff or TeX, and even help-authoring tools like
> > RoboHelp, all allow automation, reuse, and
> > single-sourcing.
> >
> > Another purported benefit of structured authoring
> is
> > that it enforces consistency both within a
> document
> > and across a suite of related documents. Again,
> > structure is not necessary to gain this benefit: a
> > properly-designed style sheet (combined with good
> > old-fashioned peer pressure) is sufficient."
> >
> >
>
http://blog.360.yahoo.com/blog-BLFrRSM1crQ40jjr38W8Q2JQtELQ?p=9
> >
> > I agree on some levels: structured documents, like
> > virtualization, are an overhyped trend.
> >
> > On another level, I find them useful in that they
> are
> > often machine parseable.
> >
> > On still another level, I find the convergence of
> RDF
> > and XML interesting as XML is a structural markup,
> > while RDF is a value-typing/definitional markup.
> >
> > Kollar made some good points about the utility of
> > simply a style sheet and some common sense. I
> think
> > the dumbing-down of authoring to the point where
> > machines could do it is a silly idea. On the other
> > hand, I like the thought of writing information
> into
> > an XML format, tagging it with RDF-style
> definitional
> > markup, and then putting a kind of data tainting
> on it
> > so it knows where to go, whether a public CMS or a
> > private intranet. Letting the machines work for
> us, in
> > other words. 
> 
>
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