EDDs for MIL-STD-38784

Thu Mar 22 05:52:11 PDT 2012

Hi Michael, Richard, and Framers

What Richard says is correct. You can easily create an EDD from a DTD from within FrameMaker. However, there is a significant amount of work - and a significant learning curve - required to turn that EDD into something usable.

Essentially, what you get at the beginning is a set of elements, their attributes (along with attribute types), and content models. If you tried to produce documentation with that, all you would get would be a series of paragraphs of Times New Roman 12pt text. All the work goes into defining the formatting rules, read-write rules (for translating FM elements to and from SGML/XML), and so on. Then you still have to define your template with all its layouts, formats, and so on. This is not trivial. I'd expect it to take several months if you are new to the process.

However. Once it's done, it's done. Even if the look and feel of your output have to change, those changes are (mostly) done in the template, not the EDD (the amount of work in the EDD will vary depending on how you defined your formatting rules).

I guess your decision rests on a number of factors:

* If you have the time to learn it all for yourself, I'd say go for it. But be aware that it will take you several months. By that I mean something slightly usable after a couple of months, the "final" version after six or more.

* If you can cadge an existing EDD from someone, you'll save a lot of time. But you'll still have to adjust the formatting to suit your deliverables. And you'll lose out on the learning part of it (a good or a bad thing, depending on how you look at it).

* If you can't afford to spend significant time, hire a consultant to create your EDD/template/read-write rules for you.

Hope this helps.

Roger

Roger Shuttleworth
Technical Documentation
AV-BASE Systems Inc.
1000 Air Ontario Drive, Suite 200
London, Ontario
N5V 3S4
Tel. 519 691-0919 ext. 330
  _____  

From: Combs, Richard [mailto:richard.combs at Polycom.com]
To: Michael Johnson [mailto:k7rvx at yahoo.com], framers at lists.frameusers.com [mailto:framers at lists.frameusers.com]
Sent: Wed, 21 Mar 2012 15:59:44 -0400
Subject: RE: EDDs for MIL-STD-38784

Michael Johnson wrote: 

  > Right now we are looking for an econmonical way to use produce
  > printable PDF files from the SGML.  Things are not looking too rosy
  > with Arbortext.  It looks like we need to spend a lot more money on
  > software.  We understand Datalogics Composer does the best job, and can
  > deal with FOSIs and change pages the best.  However, the price is
  > $50,000 to buy and $9,000 a year to maintain it.  The Arbortext
  > solution is called Print Composer.  It is far less expensive (about
  > $1,400 a year including maintenance) but using it requires that we
  > tinker with the print FOSI a great deal to get it to work.  We may even
  > have to write our own print FOSI.
  > 
  > Although I am no expert, it seems to me that FrameMaker is the least
  > expensive solution.  As I understand it, the Framemaker EDD is a
  > combination of a FM template and the DTD.  I think that if we created
  > our own Air Force 38784 EDD, we would not have to buy any more
  > software to produce the printable PDF files.  Am I correct?  If so, it
  > would be even better if we could find a commercial version of the Air
  > Force 38784 EDD.

  Well, my knowledge is pretty limited and theoretical, but I don't see any replies, so I'll offer this: Your understanding is correct. Since you have the DTD, FrameMaker can produce a basic EDD from it. You have to do some work on it to end up with the formatting you want. But you don't need any additional tools and you don't need to find a ready-to-use EDD (although it would save you time if someone who's producing docs using the same DTD and formatted the way yours need to be formatted could provide their EDD). 

  Somewhere in your FM installation (or at adobe.com) you should be able to find the "Structured Developer's Guide," which should help you get started -- or at least understand what you're getting into. ;-) 

  HTH, and someone with actual experiences supplements or corrects this. 

  Richard G. Combs
  Senior Technical Writer
  Polycom, Inc.
  richardDOTcombs AT polycomDOTcom
  303-223-5111
  ------
  rgcombs AT gmailDOTcom
  303-903-6372
  ------

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