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- Newsgroups: comp.text.frame
- Path: sparky!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!oakhill!oakhill!hamm
- From: hamm@austoto.sps.mot.com (Steve Hamm)
- Subject: Re: Troff vs FrameMaker Productivity
- In-Reply-To: clarke@mahakala.corp.sgi.com's message of Thu, 23 Jul 1992 15:51:10 GMT
- Message-ID: <HAMM.92Jul23143956@toto.austoto.sps.mot.com>
- Sender: news@oakhill.sps.mot.com
- Nntp-Posting-Host: toto
- Reply-To: hamm@ssdt-bluestein.sps.mot.com (Steve Hamm)
- Organization: Motorola SPS, Austin, TX
- References: <1992Jul23.045118.27744@news.eng.convex.com>
- <HAMM.92Jul22094612@toto.austoto.sps.mot.com>
- <1992Jul22.231152.4991@informix.com>
- <1992Jul23.155110.2648@odin.corp.sgi.com>
- Date: 23 Jul 92 14:39:56
- Lines: 38
-
-
- ---On Thu, 23 Jul 1992 15:51:10 GMT, clarke@mahakala.corp.sgi.com (David Clarke) said:
-
- David> It might be interesting to rerun the troff vs frame test that
- David> Steve Hamm refers with a Frame template. Or, you could eliminate
- David> the troff macros and force the troff side to work with raw formatting
- David> instructions. Either way, this would be a more accurate test of
- David> relative productivity than having one side rely on auto-formatting
- David> and forcing the other to format line-by-line.
-
- Actually, I think the debate should be divorced from troff, which
- (unless used with an appropriate, extensive macro package, like AT+T
- used) cannot be considered a markup language.
-
- The debate should center on WYSIWYG vs. markup language for
- documentation, which is what the AT+T source I quoted was talking
- about. Form versus content: When should the writer be concerned with
- the format of the document versus getting words down on paper (or in
- a file).
-
- The AT+T study was one data point that said, for the purposes of
- producing documentation, that a markup languate is more productive.
- Frame templates, versus, for instance, LaTeX styles (which admittedly
- are not pure markup), or an SGML based system (which is perhaps another
- red flag), would be a more appropriate test.
-
- All I know about the AT+T test is in the source I quoted. I would
- suspect, though, that whatever WYSIWYG tool they used had templates,
- style sheets, or the equivalent -- most of these tools do. It seems
- that WYSIWYG gets in the way, though, in addition to missing the extra
- content information captured by using markup.
-
- --Steve
- --
- Steve Hamm ------ Motorola Inc. Semiconductor Systems Design Technology
- 3501 Ed Bluestein Blvd., MD-M2, Austin TX 78762
- Ph: 512-928-6612 Internet: hamm@ssdt-bluestein.sps.mot.com
- Fax: 512-928-7662 UUCP: ...cs.utexas.edu!oakhill!austoto!hamm
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