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Re: Real value (was implementing single-source) (Long)
Subject:Re: Real value (was implementing single-source) (Long) From:Sandy Harris <sandy -at- storm -dot- ca> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Fri, 10 Nov 2000 14:56:46 -0500
Andrew Plato wrote:
> Furthermore, quick and efficient are rarely synonymous with quality. Quality
> documentation flows from the well-informed mind of a talented writer, not some
> huge documentation system. No XML based system can or will make documentation
> better if the people feeding information into it are morons. Morons at the helm
> of a powerful documentation system will just produce crap faster.
>
> Most XML-based implementations are outlandishly excessive. Writers who cannot
> handle complex information with their minds are not going to fair one iota
> better with some huge XML implementation.
Overall, I'm inclined to agree. Certainly clueless writers will not produce good
docs, whatever the system.
Methinks there's some hope, though, that XML will help. If the system emphasises
structure at the expense of font-twiddling, them it may force some of the partially
clued to think more about structure and organisation. This is a Good Thing(TM).
So is giving the clueful writer efficient ways to express document structure.
An XML system may also contain error checks that prevent some problems. e.g. I
recently mis-organised an HTML document. I wrote a section with an H1 and some
H3s but no H2s. One of my tools caught this and I fixed it. Given a well-written
DTD and the right tools, this sort of thing might become quite useful.
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