Re: Giving up on XML

["Bob Doyle" <bobdoyle -at- skybuilders -dot- com>]

Hi Stuart,

That huge IBM "XML in a box" is now a very small subset of XML (and thus of
the structure possibilities) called DITA (Darwin Information Typing
Architecture).  http://dita.xml.org

The DITA Open Toolkit is a half-dozen free programs that can be assembled,
with some technical hassle, to publish your deliverables.
http://dita-ot.sourceforge.net

The box you suggest that can be lifted by just one tech writer is being
built (it's in beta testing) at DITA Users (http://www.ditausers.org).

We have done all the complicated installations on a hosted web server. We
then integrated a WYSIWYG editor that hides the underlying XML from the
writer. So nothing for the TW to do except write some topics and then
assemble them with a ditamap (a sort of ToC) and build the output files.

We call it DITA from A to B (Authoring to Building).

Please take a look at it. Membership is free during our beta period.
http://www.ditausers.org/membership/how_to_join/

Cheers,

Bob.


On 3/20/07, Stuart Burnfield <slb -at- westnet -dot- com -dot- au> wrote:
>
> **In the mid-1990s there was a very successful product called Internet
> in a Box. I can't remember how good the software was but the name and
> the idea of it were perfect. Before then different parts of the Internet
> such as e-mail, web browsing, ftp, gopher and telnet had to be set up
> and maintained separately by someone with knowledge, patience and fair
> bit of spare time.
>
> I guess Gene is describing 'XML Publishing in a Box'. IBM and other big
> companies already have one of these boxes, but the box is so big it took
> dozens of people to build it and it still takes several people to (as it
> were) lift it. What's needed is a box that can be lifted by one or two
> TWs with relative ease.
>
> The box might include many scripts and components from various sources,
> but this should be more or less invisible. To the author it sgould just
> look like an editor with some menu options to publish the output in
> various formats. We should be able to install the software, then within
> half an hour import or create a simple project and publish it to PDF,
> HTML Help, Eclipse, ASCII, or whatever.
>
> AuthorIT actually does most of this, except that it doesn't use XML to
> store the source files.
>
> Stuart
>
>
>
>


-- 
Bob Doyle
Editor In Chief, CMS Review - http://www.cmsreview.com
Former Technology Advisor, CM Pros -
http://www.cmprofessionals.org/membership/cm-profiles/bob-doyle
Contributing Editor, EContent Magazine -
http://www.econtentmag.com/About/AboutAuthor.aspx?AuthorID=155
President and CEO, skyBuilders - http://www.skybuilders.com
77 Huron Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02138
Tel: +1 617-876-5676   Skype:bobdoyle
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