[Framers] FrameMaker 2015

[Peter Gold]

I first saw FM in 1989 on a Sun. Also Interleaf. Tech pubs was evaluating
both, against their established unix text-based workflow (vi and others),
that used UNIX scripts to perform miraculous manipulations, and
author-embedded dot-commands to format output with customized xroff. A few
of us got to try FrameMaker 2.x on a Mac; Windows at that time and PCs it
ran were too wimpy to handle FM.

Around 1994, I had a NeXT, SPARCstation, IBM-PC, and Mac on my tech-support
desk, all with at least one FM version.

One of the best "AHA!" FM moments I had: A student who came to our
Sun-based classroom for FM training demanded a Mac, because UNIX was scary.
Couldn't make the case that "it's the same on all platforms." So, we got it
done ASAP. One new problem: The student saw that FM on all the UNIX
machines were working exactly as on the Mac, so they demanded we swap back
to a UNIX machine. Huh? Why? "Well, I can add 'UNIX proficiency' to my
resume!"

Remember Marshall McCluhan's 1960's rephrasing of, "We shape our tools,
and, thereafter, our tools shape us," into "We ape our tools, and,
thereafter, our tools ape us?" FrameMaker is one of those, IMO.

Thanks for all the memory-spurs, folks. Yes, this one of the unique
Internet zones that abounds in helpfulness rather than snarky flame wars.


On Thu, Apr 2, 2020 at 7:16 AM Jerilynne Knight <jerilynne.knight at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Wow, it's amazing to see all the memories coming up! My first use was in
> '92, although I'm not sure of the version # persactly! For some reason I
> want to think it was 4 or 5. And Syed...haven't heard the term "Interleaf"
> in ages, although I remember the discussions around it!
>
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