Re: Framemaker? (from techwr-l)

[Win Day <winday -at- IDIRECT -dot- COM>]

At 01:52 PM 12/4/96 -0800,  "Tony G. Rocco" <trocco -at- NAVIS -dot- COM> wrote:
>At 13:05 -0800 12/4/96, Wing, Michael J wrote:

>>><snip>
>>>Tony should climb down off his horse.
>>
>>Isn't he the same guy that recently said something to the effect of,
>>"I'm glad my degree puts me a step ahead of the Tech Writing Pack" ?
>>
>Yes, Michael, I am the same guy who made a statement to that effect, with
>no regrets.

>As to my FrameMaker comments: I was not on a "high horse." (It was just a
>short pony.) Nor was I defending FrameMaker. In fact, I am very critical of
>FrameMaker, as my colleagues at work will well attest. I was merely making
>the point that FrameMaker, like it, love it, or hate it, *is* one of the
>most commonly used apps for producing print documentation by tech writers,
>probably the single most common. It seems odd, wouldn't you agree, Michael,
>that someone going to school to learn a skill would never even hear of one
>of the most commonly used tools by practitioners of that skill?


I disagree with your statement that FrameMaker is "one of the most commonly
used apps for producing print documentation, probably the single most common".

As you can see by the responses to the list, many of us do not use it.  We
are probably failry representative of tech writers as a whole.  And an awful
lot of documentation is still written by non-tech writer types (engineers,
programmers, marketers) -- probably using tools other than FrameMaker.

Most job ads for tech writers here (Toronto) do not mention FrameMaker.
Some do, but very few.  I NEVER saw a job ad that mentioned it while I lived
in Calgary.

I can't even buy a copy locally, or find training here.  I've tried.  I
would have to order a copy, and go somewhere else for training.

Win
------------------
Win Day
Technical Writer/Editor
Email: winday -at- idirect -dot- com