RE: converting Frame to down-level HTML

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

Hedley, I both agree and disagree with you:

> Any tool for mapping an unstructured document to a structured document --
> be it, mif2go, Webworks Publisher, or HTML Transit -- is an absolute dog IF
> you try to map FrameMaker formats to 'like' HTML formats. [...]
> You can successfully do this up to a point but then come the dreaded lists
> and tables. [...]
> Lists get terribly exciting when you have to determine whether the last
> [bulleted or numbered] para REALLY ends the list, so you can insert an
> </ol> or </ul> terminal tag, or whether that plain paragraph <p> after the
> last list item <li> is the explanatory continuation that REALLY ends the
> list.

In 1999, I worked with a document set containing a very "free" layout,
mixing several levels of numbered and bulleted lists with indented body
paragraphs, and a few tables and graphics also thrown into the lists.
We tried to use WebWorks Publisher (WWP) to map the paragraph tags to
HTML formats, and it was absolutely impossible to get WWP to generate
the correct indents/levels and list numbers!

By comparison, I also used a freeware FM-to-HTML converter on UNIX (fmtoweb)
that I teached how to do this correctly. This was possible with the addition
of the concept of absolute indent levels (which WWP apparently didn't have),
and using the possibility in HTML to specify the desired starting number
of a numbered list (<OL start="n"> I believe). This allowed you to insert
the correct number of </ol> and </ul> tags, and still correctly continue
a numbered list a few paragraphs later.

> So most FM-->HTML conversions mean a raft of special para formats to signal
> the real start and real end of a list, with the problems of ensuring that
> writers apply them correctly.  Then you build all kinds of regular
> expressions and macros within the tool to insert the appropriate tag
> openings and closings into the output stream at the logical points.
> 
> But there is a simple solution: if converting from an unstructured
> document, don't even TRY to map to HTML structure.

Well, I did, without using special formats, regular expressions or macros,
and got the correct results in at least 95% of the cases. This is not
rocket science, even though WWP made you believe that... Admittedly,
I had to edit the Perl code of fmtoweb, but that was easy compared to
trying to understand the macro language of WWP!

Maybe WWP has evolved since then, but my initial experiences with it
has made me a non-believer. Feel free to try to convert me :-)


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Thomas Michanek, Technical Writer
IAR Systems AB, Sweden: http://www.iar.com
mailto:Thomas.Michanek@iar.se
Tel: +46 18 167800, Fax: +46 18 167838
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