Archaic font manual in FM6 (long)

["Thomas Michanek" <thomas.michanek@xxxxxxxxx>]

My review of the FM6 online manuals continues...

Background: The FrameMaker distribution includes a number of 
  "Online Manuals" that are not delivered in print. In FM 5.x, these
  were available directly from the main online help screen, but in
  FM 6 they are only delivered as separate re-designed PDF files.
  They are intended for print-out, not for online reading.

I have now reviewed the manual "Managing Fonts in UNIX" in FM 6.
This is a UNIX-specific manual on the subject of adding new fonts to FM.
Unfortunately, this manual describes an archaic procedure to add fonts,
as well as an easier procedure that *cannot* be followed using FM 6!
Moreover, it fails to mention an easy method that actually works...

I will detail the deficiencies below, to warn FM users not to use the
manual as their single reference on this subject. In fact, I have
expanded on the subject and described the "correct" way to add fonts
on one of my new web pages: "Adding fonts to UNIX FM" at the address
http://w1.133.telia.com/~u13304072/framers/fonts/addfonts.html


SUMMARY: "Archaic" is the best word to describe this manual. Old and
out-dated information present already in the 5.5.6 version is unchanged
in 6.0. The main part describes a pre-FM5 procedure, and incorrectly
claims that no other alternative except using the ATI software is
possible. To add insult to injury, ATI is not included with FM as
explicitly stated, and is in reality a discontinued product.
All of this was known by Adobe well ahead of the 6.0 release.


Deficiencies in the FM6 font manual
===================================
First, let's take a look at the "easy" way in the FM6 manual, in
the chapter "Installing Fonts with Adobe Type Installer" (ATI).
Page 8 contains a series of false statements:
* "If you can use ATI, it is the easiest and quickest way to add Type 1
   fonts to FrameMaker products. Note: If you can't use ATI, you can add
   fonts to FrameMaker products only by uploading them from a Macintosh
   or a PC and then renaming and converting them."
  The note is completely untrue, as proven by my web page.
* "The Solaris versions of ATI are available on three CDs: Adobe Type On
   Call 4.1, Adobe Font Folio 7.0, and Adobe Font Folio 7.1."
  All of these CDs were out-dated at the time of the 6.0 release. The
  current versions, TOC 4.2 and Font Folio 8.0, no longer support UNIX...
* "For up-to-date information about ATI, visit the Adobe web site at
   www.adobe.com/type."
  This web page hasn't described ATI in a long, long time...
* "Type On Call is bundled with the Solaris and SGI versions of FrameMaker"
  This is not true, Type On Call stopped shipping with FM in late 1999.
  Adobe is very well aware of this, as it also affected FM 5.5.6.
  In addition, there isn't even an SGI version of FrameMaker 6.0!

In fact, it's impossible to get hold of ATI, Type On Call, or Font Folio
for UNIX, which is necessary to be able to follow the instructions!
The above quotes apply to the years 1996-98. Last I checked, it's the year
2000... Could it be a Y2K bug affecting technical writers at Adobe? :-)

Next, let's take a look at the archaic pre-FM5 procedure (converting font
files from a PC or Macintosh):
For converting PC fonts, the manual clearly mentions that it's optional
to convert bitmapped font files (ABF) into FM's own .bfont files, but the
procedure is still described (which is OK).
For converting Mac fonts, the same thing is mentioned only once. However,
the whole section on converting into .bfont files is completely missing
in the FM6 version! When you're later instructed to move the .bfont files,
it becomes very confusing for anyone trying to follow the procedure.

Finally, there's a number of other errors and typographical glitches:
* page 4: Chapters are no longer numbered (as they were in 5.5), but this
  page still refer to the chapters with numbers *only*.
* page 4: Confusion about what font sets are actually included with FM6:
  "FrameMaker products on UNIX systems come with two PostScript Type 1
   font sets. You choose one of the sets when you install the product"
  "Any FrameMaker product for a UNIX workstation comes with the following
   Monotype font sets: Times New Roman, Arial, Arial Narrow, Century
   Schoolbook, and Book Antiqua."
* page 7: File extensions of font files are explained, for example:
  ".mfont : See .mfont files, next." But .mfont files and their description
  are longer present, and the reference hasn't been deleted.
* page 18: Important file input and output have become truncated.
* page 24: A hard-coded line break left over from the 5.5 version.
* page 40: Instructions to install Adobe Transcript, a product discontinued
  a long time ago (see http://www.adobe.com/support/phonenumbers/27a2.htm).
* Some cross-refs have underlined characters left over from the online
  version in 5.5 (all other cross-refs are non-underlined).


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Thomas Michanek, FrameMaker/UNIX/MIF expert
mailto:Thomas.Michanek@telia.com   (Sweden)
  http://go.to/framers , or go directly to:
  http://w1.133.telia.com/~u13304072/framers
* U P D A T E D   O N   A U G U S T   1 5 *
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