Re: Tools question: Scenario for multiple outputs and validation of i nput

[Dan Emory <danemory@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

At 07:58 PM 1/10/01 +0000, Jeremy H. Griffith wrote:
>On Wed, 10 Jan 2001 10:14:21 -0800, Dan Emory <danemory@primenet.com>
>wrote:
>
> >You also mention the FM+SGML/Webworks Publisher combination,
> >and point out some of its major drawbacks. Owing to the current
> >XML export limitations of FM+SGML, however, WWP PRO is
> >essential if you're going to produce XML and on-line help derivatives
> >from structured documents.
>
>Hardly.  Mif2Go does the job quite well, as many on these lists
>already know.  We make W3C-valid XML 1.0 and XHTML 1.x, as well
>as all flavors of HTML, MS HTML Help, and Sun's JavaHelp in
>addition to our RTF outputs (WinHelp, Word, WP, etc.).  And
>we do it from regular FrameMaker, not just from FM+SGML.
==============================================
Well, I was talking about exporting FM+SGML
structured documents to "unflattened" XML that preserves
all the attibutes that were defined in the elements of the
FM+SGML  structured documents. Unless I'm mistaken, MIF2GO cannot
work with structured FM+SGML docs. As I understand it,
WWP PRO will, unlike MIF2GO, export structured FM+SGML 6.0
docs, to "unflattened" XML that preserves all the
attribute values. In that usage, it directly maps FM+SGML elements
and attributes to XML, thus paragraph-level tag mapping, with all
its drawbacks, is not used.

However, I've never worked with WWP Pro and FM+SGML 6.0,
so I'm not really sure how easy or feasible it is to accomplish
what I describe above. If it doesn't work as I described above,
then it's not a solution.

As you point out below, MIF2GO uses paragraph tag mapping,
and produces "flattened" XML (without attribute values, since
there are no attributes in unstructured Frame docs), which must
then be passed through XSLT middleware to produce
"unflattened" XML.

>In either case, you wind up with "flattened" XML, where the
>para-level elements (based on para format usage) contain the
>char-level ones (based on char formats), but do not contain
>each other.  Since the XML output is well-formed, it can be
>converted into a hierarchical form using XSLT, the (free) XML
>transformation language.  XSLT is not trivial, but there are
>good support resources, especially XSL-List:
>   http://www.mulberrytech.com/xsl/xsl-list
>
>-- Jeremy H. Griffith, at Omni Systems Inc.
>   (jeremy@omsys.com)  http://www.omsys.com/

====================
| Nullius in Verba |
====================
Dan Emory, Dan Emory & Associates
FrameMaker/FrameMaker+SGML Document Design & Database Publishing
Voice/Fax: 949-722-8971 E-Mail: danemory@primenet.com
10044 Adams Ave. #208, Huntington Beach, CA 92646
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