Re: On-line help tools for SGI

Subject: Re: On-line help tools for SGI
From: Glenda Jeffrey <jeffrey -at- HKS -dot- COM>
Date: Fri, 25 Aug 1995 13:50:18 GMT

> Monica Stein writes:
> > Hello,
> >
> > I need to select an authoring tool to create on-line help and on-line
> > documentation for our Unix based (SGI) products. Our printed documentation
set
> > (approx. 3000 pages) is produced using Frame 4 on the SGI (I just received
the
> > Frame 5 upgrade).

Monica -- How did you get that upgrade? We were recently told that Frame 5
was not yet available for the SGI. Did you have to do something special?

> > I have looked at HyperHelp, but was wondering whether there
> > were other tools that I was overlooking.

HyperHelp, from what I've seen, is a decent product. However, it seems to
be geared toward small- to medium-sized documents. The point of HyperHelp
is that it's meant to look exactly like Windows help (WinHelp); this may
be a big advantage if your customers are likely to be familiar with
Windows.

> > I understand that Frame Viewer could
> > be a possibility, but it is a costly solution.

It is also an antiquated solution. FrameViewer is a page-centric system --
that is, what you see on paper is exactly what you get on the screen.
Generally, this is a drawback because paper formatting and screen formatting
should be very different. (Bigger text, smaller margins online, etc.)
If you want to go with something that's related to Frame, check out
Olias instead. (Frame recently bought HaL, the makers of Olias.)
To contact HaL, call: (512)834-9962. I'm not very familiar with Olias,
but it's another option you could look at.

> > I would appreciate hearing your
> > recommendations.

> Sally Derrick replied:

> You might look at Electronic Book Technology's DynaText. I've just
> started looking at it so I can't give a ton of detail.

I have a fair amount of experience with DynaText, so let me try to
add a little more info.

> They have a
> variety of tools that create SGML-base electronic docs.
> The various tools create what they call "Dyna-books" from SGML, Frame
> MIF files, RTF, and InterLeaf ASCII (is that different from regular
> ASCII?).

This is true; HOWEVER:

I was very mislead by looking at SGI's online docs (the system is
called Insight). You must realize that Insight was HEAVILY customized
by SGI (using the SIT), and that Insight does not look very much like
the basic DynaText at all. (Pro: The Insight GUI is MUCH better (more
usable) than the base DynaText GUI. Con: Because of the extensive
customization, Insight is slower than the base DynaText and uses more
memory.)

If you are only concerned about presenting your docs on an SGI,
then all this doesn't matter -- SGI is quite happy to let you use
their version of DynaText. In fact, they prefer it. However, if you
are looking for a multi-platform solution, then you may be disappointed
when you find that the viewing software on other platforms doesn't
look nearly as good as Insight.

On the bright side, Sun has already picked up DynaText and may well
be doing the same thing SGI did (customizing it with the SIT).
I know that other big Unix vendors are thinking about it as well.

> Bad part - it looks a bit pricey to me, but I'm not sure what a
> reasonable price is for this stuff. Getting that integration with the
> tools native to your supported platform might make it worth the cost.

It all depends on how many customers you have. If you look at the FrameViewer
royalties for a few thousand customers, and then compare that to the
EBT pricing, EBT will probably look good if you don't have too many
"books". (EBT charges based on the number of "books" you build.)

All in all, I'd recommend checking out DynaText. I've been happy
with it for the most part.
--
Glenda Jeffrey Email: jeffrey -at- hks -dot- com
Hibbitt, Karlsson & Sorensen, Inc Phone: 401-727-4200
1080 Main St. Fax: 401-727-4208
Pawtucket, RI 02860


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