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Flare is XML-based, but produces XHTML files. You can work directly on them
outside of the tool with an open-source editor, and XHTML is a standard, so
I don't think you can say Flare is at all proprietary.
But I guess it's a minor point. Flare doesn't produce XML files, which is
necessary for full DITA support, and H&M does. In fact, I now use XMetaL
because I must produce and edit XML.
I used to think Flare would eventually upgrade to provide full DITA support,
but it would not be practical for them to do so. They have a solid market
niche and can now provide lots of different ways of working with DITA
projects. Although it is import only, generating output can even be done
from a command line to support large, complex projects. It's a flexible,
ingenious tool, and I wish I could still use it.
But as my Dad used to say, you must use "the proper tool for the proper
job". Oh well.
Cheers
Bee
On Tue, Apr 12, 2011 at 11:31 AM, Porrello, Leonard
<lporrello -at- illumina -dot- com>wrote:
> As far as I know, Help & Manual's XML is standards based, not proprietary
> (unlike Flare, which is "proprietary"). In other words, you can work with
> H&M XML files in any XML browser or tool which supports genuine XML.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: techwr-l-bounces+lporrello=illumina -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com [mailto:
> techwr-l-bounces+lporrello=illumina -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com] On Behalf Of
> kafkascampi
> Sent: Tuesday, April 12, 2011 11:22 AM
> To: Chris Gooch; TECHWR-L Writing
> Subject: Re: DITA useful for translation?
>
> "Thanks, Bill, Bee. As far as I can tell the advantages of DITA for
> translation that my project manager had heard about seem to be related to
> the discipline of writing in a topic based way - which we intend to do
> anyhow, regardless of underlying XML schema."
>
> I'd also add that the portability of using an open standard such as DITA is
> very appealing, versus a propietary XML format such as the Help & Manual
> system you described. Of course, you could probably transform everything
> to
> about any XML standard you want, once it's in XML. And I agree with Bill
> upthread that DITA may be too much for your needs right now. We have
> adopted
> it despite the relatively small size of our content, to take advantage of
> reuse, and because semantic markup appealed to our nerdy natures in general
> more than the syntactic Docbook approach. And, hopefully, it will serve us
> well when I rule a vast empire of content that cringes before my every
> step.
>
> Chris
>
> On Tue, Apr 12, 2011 at 10:46 AM, Chris Gooch <chris -dot- gooch -at- rocketmail -dot- com
> >wrote:
>
> >
> > Thanks, Bill, Bee. As far as I can tell the advantages of DITA for
> > translation that my project manager had heard about seem to be related to
> > the discipline of writing in a topic based way - which we intend to do
> > anyhow, regardless of underlying XML schema.
> >
> > cheers,
> > Chris.
> >
> >
> > Christopher Gooch,
> > Sheffield, UK.
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