Re: Influencing Adobe on FrameMaker

[Mark Barratt <markb@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Dan

I guess no responses because Thomas' and your posts were mostly
information rather than calls to action, I thought.

I don't have thousands - or even tens - of licences, and if that's what
works you/we are sunk.

But none of us are going to go down with the ship, are we? I've invested
a lot of time learning Frame, then FM+SGML, since abandoning Ventura
after it 'suicided' into Windows. I've 'sold' a fair number of licences,
too. I'm committed.

But not that committed. I'm evaluating the competition as fast as I can.
As we should all be. There are some interesting products coming along.

My judgement is that FM+SGML remains, with all its faults, the best
document processor on the market at any price.

But the faults look more glaring as each week goes by, and the
competition gets better. I consult, and I tell my customers what I know.
These days I tell them not to commit to FM without a careful look at
alternatives - and the list of alternatives gets longer.

The problems are obvious, the solutions are obvious. Heck, they must
even be obvious within Adobe - most of us have been in organisations
where capital and management talent have to be rationed and allocated to
the 'saving the company' projects, so the marginal stuff gets closed
down or left to idle along.

So. I've told Adobe what [I think] the problems are, as loud and clear
as I can. I'll continue to do so when the chance comes my way. Then I
have to get on with it - I'm an information designer, not a software
symbiont.

best

-- 
Mark Barratt
Text Matters
phone +44 (0)118 986 8313
fax +44 (0)118 931 3743
email markb@textmatters.com
web http://www.textmatters.com

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