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Conference vaxuum::online_bookbuilding

Title:	Online Bookbuilding
Notice:	This conference is write-locked: see note 1.3.
Moderator:	VAXUUM::UTT

Created:	Fri Aug 12 1988
Last Modified:	Mon Jul 15 1991
Last Successful Update:	Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:	440
Total number of notes:	2134

68.0. "Bookwriting for non-Digital manuals?" by ASIMOV::KENYON (The Foundation of Science (fiction)) Wed Jan 25 1989 15:35

    The bookreader is a very exciting application, one which has people's
    mouths watering at the ease with which they could get at information
    when running their favorite program.  However, at this point only
    Digital manuals are in online format, with little information on the
    outside for getting other manuals into this format.  How can companies
    we have joint marketing agreements with (CMP/CSO/...) put thier manuals
    in Bookreader format at this point?  If they have it in Interleaf now,
    or TEX, or ASCII, etc. - how can they get from there to here?  Every
    CMP I work with would LOVE thier manuals available in Bookreader
    format...  Can it be done now??
    
    -jeff kenyon

T.R	Title	User	Date	Lines
68.1	Reach out and touch a product manager	STAR::ROBERT	`Thu Jan 26 1989 08:31`	13
	Please send any specific market demand information you have to CURIE::SPERA and STAR::WEISENFELD. Specific CSO interest is of more value (and needed) than general market interest of which we are aware. It is Digital's announced intent to share SBT technologies with third parties and customers including the BookWriter/BookReader system, but we have no schedule at this time (program level intent). We are evaluating different ways to achieve this goal at this time. Documented customer demand can influence schedule and resource priorities, so please send those cards-n-letters. tkx, greg
68.2	CDROM is the next best thing to being there!	VMSDEV::WEISENFELD	`Wed Feb 01 1989 21:33`	10
	Greg is right on the money...keep the cards and letters coming!! Just to keep you posted, though, we have just closed the gates for Stage II inputs and will be publishing the whole list of what folks requested in future versions of the Bookreader and OLD programs. I'll make sure that a pointer to that list of requirements gets posted in this notes file. Cheers, Marian
68.3	A standard interface?	MARVIN::SILVERMAN	`Fri Feb 03 1989 05:48`	24
	<<< Note 68.0 by ASIMOV::KENYON "The Foundation of Science (fiction)" >>> -< Bookwriting for non-Digital manuals? >- >How can companies we have joint marketing agreements with >(CMP/CSO/...) put their manuals in Bookreader format at this point? >If they have it in Interleaf now, or TEX, or ASCII, etc. - how can >they get from there to here? Every CMP I work with would LOVE >their manuals available in Bookreader format... Can it be done >now?? Can I also add a plea for DIGITAL manuals not coded in DOCUMENT? There are plenty of DIGITAL technical writers around who would prefer to use another tool - a WYGINS (What you get is no surprise) tool, in fact. Interleaf TPS is one example - though obviously it would be preferable to use a DIGITAL product - perhaps Decwrite in a future version. The idea of 'coding' manuals seems odd to me, anyway. Are there plans for a PostScript or DDIF (or some other standard) interface to the Bookreader? Marge
68.4	Bookreader support for other authoring tools	VMSDEV::WEISENFELD	`Thu Feb 09 1989 13:45`	13
	At this point, VAX DOCUMENT is the only authoring tool for the Bookreader. We recognize, however, that there is a critical need for other authoring tools to be supported, especially other authoring tools produced by DIGITAL (like the EPIC suite). For this reason, one of our major priorities for future development is making the Bookreader callable by other authoring systems. Work is now underway to assess what this involves and in what timeframe this development can be accomplished. If we can support EPIC, that certainly involved support of the DDIF standard, and that is a goal we'd like to accomplish. Thanks for your input. Marian