Programming Languages for Technical Communication

Subject: Programming Languages for Technical Communication
From: Mark Baker <mbaker -at- OMNIMARK -dot- COM>
Date: Wed, 28 Jan 1998 10:45:19 -0500

The recent debate on programming languages for technical communication was
interesting because it focused almost entirely on programming languages as
something a technical communicator might write about. A far more important
question is what programming languages a writer needs to actually do
technical writing.

It is surely clear by now that the days of the static information product
are numbered. While there will always be some static documents, interactive
individualized information products offer productivity gains so compelling
that customer will soon demand nothing less. It will no longer be enough to
deliver static information, we will have to deliver information with
behavior. And behavior means programming.

Even the static documents we do produce will increasingly be the product of
well integrated corporate information sets, not the individual labors of a
writer and a word processor. Creating a new document will be a matter of
selecting, customizing, and ordering existing material from well managed
sources. This again mean programming.

Writers who cannot program content management and information delivery
applications will soon find themselves either out of a job or playing a
reduced role.

So what languages should you learn to keep up with the trend toward
interactivity and individualization? Java, Java Script, XML, and Cascading
Style Sheets have some uses on the client side of the Web, but the real
content management and individualization challenge is on the server side,
where vast quantities of corporate information must find their way to the
web (and other interactive media). For that you need SQL, XML again, and a
server side programming language. The most common are C, C++, and PERL. The
most powerful and easiest to learn and use is OmniMark, which was designed
from the ground up for text manipulation and content management. (The
learning edition is available for free download at http://www.omnimark.com)

Some will no doubt argue that creating these applications is a job for
programmers, not writers, and to a certain extent it is. But this overlooks
just how much we as writers have always had to know about the graphic
design, layout, and printing trades in order to keep control over our work
and get the results we want. Interactive and individualized information
applications are a radically different media. Unless we learn to think and
talk like information programmers, unless we learn to build prototypes and
write functional specifications, unless we actually learn what the tools can
do and how they do it, we are not going to be in control. We will simply
supply raw data which others will hack apart and chew on before spitting it
out on an unsuspecting public. If we want to retain any connection with our
readers or any control over the information they see, we have to know, run,
design, and build the information machines.
---
Mark Baker
Manager, Corporate Communications
OmniMark Technologies Corporation
1400 Blair Place
Gloucester, Ontario
Canada, K1J 9B8
Phone: 613-745-4242
Fax: 613-745-5560
Email mbaker -at- omnimark -dot- com




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