RE: FrameMaker Replacements

["Aiken, Jason" <jason.aiken@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

This ought to be an interesting thread.

Way back some several years ago, I elicited feedback on a Frame vs. Epic comparison. I still haven't done much with structured Frame, but have certainly included it on my list when evaluating XML tools for the future. While I have much more to say about other tools than I do FrameMaker these days, I can't resist this sort of open-ended philosophical discussion.

I still use FrameMaker for almost all of my personal/academic writing, but I think it will need a Unicode-compliant fully XML-embracing overhaul very soon. InDesign is not it. Structured FrameMaker 7.1 is partly there. I'm most excited about tools that have an API that is accessible by a variety of DOM or SAX -based technologies...but I digress.

On the question of other tools for long documents, I think the question itself bears certain assumptions. If we assume that long documents can only be written with book or document -centric applications, our list of tools is probably quite small. Somewhere buried in the current issue of the STC glossy zine Intercom is a very salient question: should we instead be writing databases?

Looking at XML and the surrounding body of tools and technologies, the number of options are easily in the 100s. It all depends on how much you want to buy, how much you want to integrate, and what you're really trying to make. If you want long documents just like your Frame files, I'd keep using FrameMaker. There's certainly lots of folks out there using FrameMaker with XML databases and living quite happily with this approach. There's a lot to be said for leveraging users' comfort with an amazing editing application. Companies like Vasont are happy to integrate FrameMaker into a content management solution.

Even so, I'd watch for something like Adobe PieceMaker for a serious attempt at supporting the publication of everything from web-based media feeds to traditional paper books (I made this up; any relevance to anything real is complete coincidence). That is, if you want to write database chunks, then there's other tools that may do that better.

We used (and continue to use) mif2go's .MIF > XML features for converting our Frame documents to a single XML stream. With some post-processing in Perl, this then has to be divided into chunks where appropriate for our database methodology (by a human).

I've got a big FOSI deadline tomorrow. I'll watch this thread and maybe chime in again next week.

Best regards and Happy 2005,
Jason "the beardless Frame Templar" Aiken

> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-framers@xxxxxxxxx 
> [mailto:owner-framers@xxxxxxxxx]On Behalf
> Of Stevens, Ananda (GE Healthcare)
> Sent: Thursday, January 06, 2005 3:07 PM
> To: framers@xxxxxxxxx
> Subject: RE: FrameMaker Replacements
> 
> 
> I would also be interested in how well other programs import 
> anything that FrameMaker can generate. Or, to put another 
> slant on it: If you have tried migrating from Frame to some 
> other long-doc tool, how did you migrate your docs, and how 
> well did that work out?
> 
> K. Ananda Stevens
> GE Healthcare 

Hello Framers,

With the recent discussion about the future of FrameMaker, perhaps a
FrameMaker Replacements thread may be useful. Is anyone experimenting with
other long-document programs out there? Can you give any information on
pros, cons, features, etc., especially as they relate to FrameMaker?

One particular interest I have is how other programs support scripting and
automation.

Note that this post is not meant to be an anti-Adobe rant or to further
speculate on FrameMaker's future.

Rick Quatro
Carmen Publishing
585 659-8267
rick@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
www.frameexpert.com


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