[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
Marcus, Marcus, Marcus:
Hedley, Hedley, Hedley... :-)
I'm surprised that you of all people should associate functionality
with presentation. It's a bit similar to separating format from
content. 8^) And I'm surprised that you equate indexes only with
hardcopy.
My point was more that the plugins reflect improvements to the current
paradigms, as dictated by the application. It's circular, so
improvements strike me as tinkering at the edge. Take indexes for
example - we work through and judiciously mark up occurrences of words
to appear in an index. The decision as to whether a particular
occurrence of a word is significant is pretty much based on the current
view of the data, or configuration of the document, or whatever you
might want to call it.
What if the fragment of information containing an index marker is pulled
together with other fragments into a new document? Is that index entry
still relevant? A more useful approach would be to dynamically index
once the fragments had been assembled. The results aren't likely to be
any worse than than just trusting the indexing designed for a different
document...
So would it be better for Adobe to incorporate the plugin, or to try to
fix the problem? Maybe both in this particular case, but do you get my
drift? Adobe following users who are following FrameMaker isn't really
the path to longevity.
I was trying to make the point that when there are a bunch of plugins
to support indexing (= data entry), Adobe should get the message --
that the indexing functionality in FrameMaker sucks.
I didn't say that it didn't suck, I just think that making it suck less
at one point in the process isn't really going to work for too long.
And hardcopy isn't dead. If you and I are like other people, how
many times do we print out a help topic or web page to read it?
We have just completed a publishing system for a federal government
department. It includes hardcopy publication, website and PDAs. They
used to print and distribute 10,000 hardcopies per release. Since the
website went live on December 1, the demand has dropped to 1000. In six
months, it could be down to a couple of hundred. In another year or so,
the production of hardcopy is scheduled to cease. Hardcopy is as dead as
a doornail. Never again will as much hardcopy be produced as was
produced today - you can say that with confidence every morning.
And in the wonderful world of personalised content that adapts to the
custom product you have ordered, the country you are in, the access
privileges you have, and the set of topics you have chosen to print,
wouldn't it be wonderful if you have chosen to print out your own
personalised workshop manual for your custom 2009 Turbo Tarburner
with optional hydrogen fuel cell and electric motor (as against the
standard biodiesel motor), racing slicks, two-tone duco and hard-top
convertible four-door. And of course this personalised manual would
come with its own custom index. When your head is under the bonnet,
Google doesn't work too well with your Haynes repair manual..
So there I am, with my head under the bonnet of a piece of machinery
filled with computers and with a suitable power supply - why wouldn't I
just have a screen mounted on the inside of the bonnet? The other
computers in my car could further shape my manual, providing information
based on diagnostics and rectification procedures. Of course all of
those permutations could be accounted for in the hardcopy too, but then
I'd have to have my Tarburner fitted with the optional tow bar so I
could pull the trailer containing my manuals...
Indexing in this case would be dynamic and would be performed by
combining the information and the circumstances. Why do I need to know
where the most significant occurrence of "hydrogen fuel cell" is when my
car has pointed me to the correct repair procedure?
Marcus
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