Re: FrameMaker's Future

[Peter Ring <pri@xxxxxx>]

We are using both Word, FrameMaker and Epic Editor (and a good measure 
of XSLT, Perl, Python, OmniMark and you-name-it glue).
  We don't use FrameMaker much for basic editing; most source documents 
are either Word or SGML/XML. We use FrameMaker for page composition, 
index generation etc., and AFAIK there is no obvious replacement, 
especially if you need complex indexes.

Arbortext have a number of products that might be relevant. There's a 
(separately priced) composer feature that you can use from within Epic 
Editor, there's an enterprise publishing framework (E3), and there's 
Arbortext CPS (formerly known as Advent 3B2). 3B2 used to be 
prohibitively expensive; I don't know about current pricing. I would 
guess that E3 is also prohibitively expensive.
  High-end systems like E3 or XyEnterprise XPP are beyond reach; on the 
other hand, you might consider outsourcing page composition to a 
publishing service that can provide technology and expertise that you 
wouldn't be able to justify for your own operation.

If you want to migrate unstructured legacy FrameMaker documents to XML, 
FrameMaker is actually quite capable by itself. Read up on conversion 
tables in Appendix A in the Structure Application Developer's Guide. The 
process of setting up the conversion tables will teach you a lot about 
your documents ;) and you can keep the documents as structured 
FrameMaker documents for some time, easing the transition to XML.
  When you go XML, you can start with a somewhat loose content model 
and then add more structure in subsequent automated or manual steps. The 
conversion tables will only get you part of the way, and it might be 
easier to do the final up-translation outside of FrameMaker, using 
commonplace XML tools.

BTW, for up-translation from Word or FrameMaker, there used to be a 
brilliant utility called DynaTag, published by EBT. First, a free-ware 
utility, Rainbow Maker, was released, and Rainbow Maker was productized 
as DynaTag. DynaTag was available as a separate product for a short 
while (we have one) and then became part of DynaBase, a big content 
management and publishing system. DynaBase was acquired by Inso, resold 
to Enigma, and then finally returned to Providence, home of EBT 
successor Red Bridge <http://www.rbii.com/>. I wish Red Bridge would 
make DynaTag available again as a separate product. The free-ware 
Rainbow Maker can still be found at

  ftp://ftp.ifi.uio.no/pub/SGML/Rainbow/

If you have massive amounts of legacy documents, you should consider 
using a conversion service.

You might want to have several rich and complex content models for 
media-neutral storage of your documents. For publishing, then convert in 
a pipe-line fashion through more generic content models to the final 
publishing application (typesetting and web); that will make the 
publishing application development simpler. Also, look out for ways to 
handle metadata separately from the documents.

IMHO, a good XML editor like Epic Editor and a good page composer like 
FrameMaker complements each other nicely. Editing structured FrameMaker 
documents is pleasant enough, but I'd rather limit the effort involved 
in developing the FrameMaker structure application. If I have no 
intention of round-tripping the structured FrameMaker document back to 
media-neutral storage, I can use XSLT etc. to 'pre-cook' documents from 
the media-neutral storage to an interchange format that allow for a 
simpler, import-only structure application.

Wrt. Epic Editor, there are some whitepapers on the Arbortext site; much 
of it marketing mumbo-jumbo, but the products are solid.

  http://www.arbortext.com/resources/index.htm

There's a very lively mailing list for Arbortext users, named 
'adepters'. Subscription info here:

  https://www.arbortext.com/support/html/adepters.asp

The adepters archive appears to suffer bitrot.

Epic Editor users are also frequently found on the xml-doc mailing list

  http://groups.yahoo.com/group/xml-doc/


Kind regards
Peter Ring


Carol J. Elkins wrote:
> Paul, do you happen to know what the migration path might be for 
> Frame->Epic for nonstructured docs? I've made an appointment to speak to 
> an ArborText rep, but if she doesn't know FrameMaker and I don't know 
> Epic, it will be difficult to get an accurate feel for what might be 
> involved in converting large libraries. If docs need to exit Frame as 
> SGML or XML, then Epic won't be an option for my business.
>
> Carol
>
> At 10:45 AM 1/13/2005 -0800, you wrote:
>
> > > relationships, attributes, quantifiers (+,*,?,%)) Are there other
> > > products out there that will convert XML to print with the power that
> > > FrameMaker provides? (Different master pages according to element, 
> > apply
> > > different styles based on relation of XML element, book building, page
> > > numbering)
> >
> > > A couple days ago was the first time I had heard of Arbortext, I 
> > haven't
> > > had a chance to look further into the product. Does anyone know if it
> > > will do what I describe above?
> >
> > Epic can format XML, use different master pages (page sets, in FOSI) 
> > depending on element, and use context to handle even the same element 
> > differently through FOSI and, I think, XSL/FO stylesheets.
> >
> > But not without significant investment in those stylesheets.
> >
> > ------
> > Paul Nagai
> >
> > Tsunami relief portal:
> > http://www.networkforgood.org/
> >
> >
> > ** To unsubscribe, send a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxx **
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>
>
> *****************************************
> Carol J. Elkins        A Written Word
> Making Information Understandable
> Phone: 719-948-3773
> mailto:celkins@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> http://www.awrittenword.com
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