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Subject:Re: PDF, SGML, and what else? From:Chet Ensign <Chet_Ensign%LDS -at- NOTES -dot- WORLDCOM -dot- COM> Date:Fri, 24 Mar 1995 18:56:25 EDT
Leonor Ciarlone writes:
<--
The question is this: The book-based viewer market seems
smaller than I thought in terms of source format.
Postscript/PDF will get to Adobe/Wordperfect and SGML has
many choices (but a daunting road even with converters). I
dont consider a topic-based solution (like WinHelp) a good
choice because of the nature of the engine and the
re-structuring/maintenance required. (Opening the
can of worms as to the difference between "online help" and
"online documentation").
-->
Leonor,
Check out the February 7th issue of PC Magazine, where the lead topic was
electronic publishing. There is an article devoted to most of the products for
electronic publishing (Microsoft's Multimedia Viewer was left out). The
editor's pick was Folio.
I think your project highlights a key problem in this area -- and one of the
key reasons that SGML was developed. Look at all the different products and
formats you are preparing: RTF customized for the Windows Help compiler,
Toolbook files, something else for the mini-tutorials, whatever format you use
to output paper *and* yet another for electronic publishing. I'll bet there's a
lot of overlap between the content of each of those components and that,
nevertheless, you have to create each document from scratch. Pretty
labor-intensive and expensive. SGML may look daunting, but by giving you a
product-independent data structure to work from, you could generate these
formats (and more) programatically, ultimately save lots of time and money, and
improve the job satisfaction for everyone involved.
By the way, we are working with a client whose product is a virtual library of
hardware and software manuals. If you happen to walk into a Staples Office
Supply store, look on any of the new Packard Bell Pentiums. I hear that they
are out on those systems now. This is a very neat replica of the book online.
The underlying data format is SGML.
