Gal Aviel wrote:
[wants to switch from FrameMaker 5.5 to LyX]
I wrote a proposal a couple of years ago to do just that where
I work, kind of tongue-in-cheek but it got this -| |- close to
being approved.
> However this morning I saw that FrameMaker has a newer version,
> namely 7.0, and it's suppose to support DTD/XML/SGML. [...]
>
> The restriction which is imposed on me, is that I must supply other uses
> with valid FrameMaker files.
>
> My suggested intended flow is to write with Lyx/SGML, and when I'm done -
> open in FrameMaker and save as FrameMaker native .fm file, thus distributing
> to other users to continue to maintain my documents.
It's possible to set up a DocBook-based interchange between
Frame and LyX, but if you're not familar with SGML/XML it
will be difficult. There are several factors:
First, you have to get used to writing in a fairly strict,
structured environment. I've been doing this (using Frame
and a homegrown DTD) for several months now. It's hard at
first, not being able to use any paragraph/character style
anywhere you want to, but it does enforce consistency and
makes the document easier to maintain over time.
The really hard part is setting up the environment. The
good news is that (I think) Frame 7 comes with a fairly
complete DocBook "application" (the files it uses to drive
the transform between DocBook & Frame). The bad news is
that LyX does not provide the same strict structure for
editing DocBook, so you have to make sure that files from
LyX are valid before importing them into FrameMaker.
Finally, you should assume that once you import your file
into FrameMaker, that it may be hard to return the file to
LyX without losing some formatting information.
Speaking as a technical writer, FrameMaker is about as
good as *graphical* writing tools get[1]. If you push it
beyond basics, not even LyX can match it -- and LyX is
one of the finest open-source tools around. To be
specific, Frame's cross-reference support is extensive
and very flexible[2], not to mention things like document
variables and conditional text support... or the very
flexible page layout (especially compared to LaTeX, which
I personally find too rigid). It also does a fair job of
typesetting; not as good as (La)TeX but much better than
Word. (But Frame's footnote support is rather poor for
heavy use -- I don't use footnotes at work though.)
I assume that LyX is a good fit for the type of documents
you're writing... but converting those documents to Frame
may turn out to be non-trivial or require too much hand-
editing afterwards to be of much use. It's certainly worth
trying, and I hope it works for you.
[1] Note the qualifier, "graphical." It's kind of
frustrating that after 17+ years of WYSIWYG, there are
still things that troff & TeX can do that are difficult
or impossible with GUI tools. I'm pushing Frame *hard*
at work these days with my current project, and sometimes
I'd like to move the whole thing to groff (the other
writers would scream bloody murder though).
[2] You can build references that include paragraph text,
numbering, page number, chapter number, on & on, with Frame.
One instance where Frame beats the text-based tools for
ease of use even for complex cases.
--
Larry Kollar k o l l a r at a l l t e l . n e t
"Content creators are the engine that drives value in the
information life cycle." -- Barry Schaeffer, on XML-Doc
