Producing HTML help pages in FM for Eclipse help

[Fei Min Lorente]

Thanks for correcting that, Jeremy. I blame my faulty memory.

The reason the file names kept changing on me is because I have some
chapters that are generated from the source code, tagged with XML, then
imported into FrameMaker. I really wouldn't expect Mif2Go to remember
what the last batch of sections were named when they are all effectively
replaced. Hence, the filename markers saved me, especially since we
store all this in a file control system and I was filling it up with
duplicate content (same stuff, different file name). And since the
markers are generated, too, we've worked out a system so they don't
duplicate.

Fei Min 

-----Original Message-----
From: Jeremy H. Griffith [mailto:jeremy at omsys.com] 
Sent: Friday, June 19, 2009 4:27 PM
To: framers at lists.frameusers.com
Cc: mathieu jacquet; Fei Min Lorente
Subject: Re: Producing HTML help pages in FM for Eclipse help

On Fri, 19 Jun 2009 13:06:27 -0700, "Fei Min Lorente" 
<FeiMin.Lorente at onsemi.com> wrote:

>I wanted to split my chapters into smaller files because it's pretty 
>rotton to have to scroll through a long file in Eclipse UA, so I used a

>Mif2Go-defined marker in FM to provide file names wherever I split the 
>file. Otherwise, Mif2Go generates a file name based on the paragraph 
>ID, and that changes a lot.

One correction:  The generated file name does **not** change, ever,
unless you delete the starting heading of the section, then recreate a
new one.  Or *copy* and paste it to a different location; if you *cut*
and paste, it stays the same.  It does not change if you edit the
heading, or when you make any other changes anywhere in the file.
That's a promise.

Why does this matter?  Because, as we say in the docs, using a marker to
create a fixed name is very, very dangerous.  You *will*, at some point,
use the same name twice, and you won't know you did.  The result will be
the second file overwriting the first.  It is very hard to figure out
what went wrong when that happens, and there's nothing we can do to
prevent it, or even tell you when, not if, it happens.

Why do we still support the FileName markers?  Well, for a while, we
didn't.  We removed the feature.  But there is one case where it really
is needed, when an external system requires a specific filename.  So we
put the FileName markers back... with warnings.  ;-)

-- Jeremy H. Griffith, at Omni Systems Inc.
  <jeremy at omsys.com>  http://www.omsys.com/