Re: ODE - requirement for Editors


Wade Hampton (whampton@staffnet.com)
Wed, 12 Jan 2000 17:05:40 -0500


Gregory Leblanc wrote:
>
> Wade Hampton wrote:
> >
> > Martin Wheeler wrote:
> > >
> > > Gregory Leblanc wrote:
> > >
> > > > There is one more KEY piece to this that's at least
> > > > as important as having editors; having what I'm going to call an
> > > >"authors guide". This could just as easily be called an "editors
> > > > guide", but the idea is to define a clear set of conventions that will
> > > > be used for documents, and lays out what that coherent form and
> > > > structure are supposed to be. Without this, it's hard to know whether
> > > > the documents are actually following that structure.
> > >
> > > Absolutely. Couldn't agree more.
> > > Anyone got a writer's guide / style manual we could use as a basis to
> > > develop this? (OSWG? LDP? Debian-doc?)
> > Great idea -- maybe an author's kit with tools, guide, and a couple
> > of sample documents?
>
> Sounds good, but unfortunately I haven't been able to find one to use as
> a starting point yet. GNOME and LDP don't have one, I should probably
> check the BSD sites, Debian, and perhaps KDE as well. Any other ideas
> where to look for one?
No ideas on a sest currently. The old linux-doc package had a set of
tools.....

Back to my earlier comments:

Step 1 -- define requirements.
Step 2 -- samples + tools = author's kit?

Also, on the docbook and other stuff, a real simple tool like what we
used to have at Mitel might be nice. I wrote all my MBA papers on a
VAX using a VERY simple tool that read my text, converted it to
runoff, then ran runoff -- generated the TOC, required fields, etc.
for me automatically without having to learn the full runoff. We
used this tool, generated output, spooled the output to 9 track tape,
went down the road, mounted the tape and read it into a PDP then printed
on a very large XEROX production LASER printer.

For example, for simple documents it could start with a
blank template like:

Author:
Date:
License:
Version:
...etc...
Synopsis:
]chapter 1
text
---- blank line to separate paragraphs
text
]] level 2
]]] level 3

All numbering could be 1 main 1.1 next level 1.1.1 third????

This was VERY easy to learn, VERY easy to maintain, and allowed
us to focus on CONTENT, not on the underlying format (and
low-level commands). The output of such a system should
be fully ODE compliant (a requirement of the tool).

Such a simple tool would bridge the gap until we have GUI-based
editors, etc. It would also facilitate script-based conversion
or on-the-fly document generation.

For more complex documents, a full, native format should be used.

Remember -- we need good quality CONTENT and if the barrier to
entry is high (to quote Judge Jackson) we will have trouble
selling our product -- i.e., our idea....
>
> Greg

-- 
W. Wade, Hampton  <whampton@staffnet.com>  
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