Re: real dumb frame/xml question

[Chris Despopoulos <cud@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

To import XML or SGML, you need FrameMaker+SGML, not plain old 
FrameMaker.  Is that the problem, that you're trying to import XML into 
plain FrameMaker?  Also, FrameMaker+SGML doesn't support import of true 
and native XML - you have to massage it a little, and if it includes 
UNICODE you're in trouble.  

The reason you need Maker+SGML to import SGML/XML is that "filtering" 
this markup (markup is the M of XML - Extensible MARKUP Language) is a 
process of parsing it to make decisions based on the structure the 
markup represents.  The idea is that the structure of a document is 
interesting - indeed, you can do lots of processing based on the 
structure of a document.  This is much more than pagination.  You can 
use XML as a single source, choose what to display, what to ignore, 
whether to re-order the information for different situations, whether to 
pull a query from a database, etc.  But geting all that processing value 
means that you have to focus on the content and structure, and handle 
the formatting at the last minute.  Further, you have to build a map 
from the structure to the formatting.  Maker+SGML has this mapping 
capability, plus it represents the structure of the document so you can 
still get some processing advantage while you're editing.  For example, 
Maker+SGML can suggest the correct "element" to add to a document at a 
specific location.  And it can automatically apply different formatting 
depending on where you insert/move an element.

XML was never designed to map directly to formatting.  It requires a CSS 
or XSL stylesheet to do that.  Or with FrameMaker+SGML, the format map 
is called an EDD - Element Definition Document.  Some consider this a 
feature, and I guess others consider it a bug.  

I can say that SGML is definitely ready for prime time, and is used 
extensively.  But there is certainly a cost/benefit threshold.  XML/SGML 
are not ready for you to use for memos and small one-time projects. 
 It's definitely ready for drafting legislation, and for aerospace, 
auto, pharmaceutical, electronics, and other industries.  And there's a 
grey area inbetween that's seeing the threshold drop lower each year.  

But you definitely need a system that maps structure to formatting - 
whether it's as simple(?) as NetScape 6, or as rich as FrameMaker+SGML, 
or beyond.

>02:33 AM 2/18/02 - Studio Smalbro wrote:
>
>>>I know this question is really stupid, but nevertheless: why doesn't
>>>Framemaker have an "import as xml" filter?
>>>Is it because there are some features in xml which won't translate right
>>>into Framemaker... or some such thing ?
>>>regards
>>>Bj=F8rn
>>
>
>Having been struggling with this issue for a long time I can tell you that
>XML needs to be converted to HTML as XML has no, that's right, no inherent
>tag definitions.  They are in the XS(L)T or you can use CSS for this and
>then find a rendering engine that will handle the mess.
>
>XML is not really ready for prime documentation time.  One person I know
>whose company committed to XML for CVS and engineering reasons had to throw
>out Frame and buy a $50k system with a server and four people to do the
>documentation - one to do the XSL, two to do the writing in notepad or the
>very primitive editor that came with the system, and one to do the
>outputting, a full time job.  But they did achieve true single source.
>
>They get the engineer's notes from the CVS tree, they translate into
>English and structure - but not format - the documents, then output PDF,
>XHTML, XML or any other format they need including Word.
>
>Nice, but pricey.
>



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