Re: [Fwd: Re: [Fwd: Support of framemaker]]

Peter -
I apologize for missing your non-member submission; most of
the bounces are spam and I must have missed your name.

Shalom did point out that Frame and Word are all that IEEE allows.

In V-AMS, we haven't had a paid LRM editor, so some of our 
problems (eg with templates) are because volunteers (plural)
have been editing the files.  It's hard to enforce discipline
across multiple users, some of whom (including myself) aren't
experts in Frame.  I noticed some problems when I was editing
LRM 2.2, but I wasn't keen on spending hours of my personal time
sorting them out.

-Geoffrey


Peter Ashenden wrote:
> Folks, 
> 
> A colleague drew my attention to the thread on use of FrameMaker for preparing standards documents. I might be able to offer some comments. I've been using FrameMaker for the VHDL standard, on another
> standards project, and on several other significant publishing projects.
> 
> IEEE lets you prepare standards drafts using FrameMaker or MS Word. In either case, you need to use the templates they provide, since that helps ensure you adhere to the IEEE style requirements. Bear in mind that
> you're not writing a document in isolation. Rather, you're contributing to an extensive suite of several hundred standard published by IEEE and harmonized with national and international standards organizations.
> Consistency of style is important.
> 
> With regard to the choice between FrameMaker and Word: I've tried both, and found that Word doesn't cut it for large documents. It might work ok for smaller documents of 50 to 100 pages. But the Verilog standards
> are pushing towards 1000 pages, with complex document structure. You need a tool appropriate to the job.
> 
> Geoffrey's comment about paragraph styles and keeping them consistent across a book suggests that he may not be using the right process. I don't have that problem. I define styles in a template document, then import
> them into each document in the book. If I need to modify a style, I modify it in the template, then re-import. A small amount of discipline makes this a non-issue.
> 
> Geoffrey also referred to LaTeX, presumably because of its hierarchical document structuring features. I agree that such features are a major improvement over linear paragraph formatting. But LaTeX for IEEE
> standards just isn't going to happen. But FrameMaker DOES provide the same kind of structuring features, if you use SGML or XML structured documents. While it's not widely advertised, IEEE uses SGML internally,
> and can provide an SGML DTD for IEEE standards. I've found it much easier to work with large documents when they're structured, compared to when they're linear. It also helps keep the formatting under control.
> 
> Regarding platform support: this has been an issue, and still is. FrameMaker used to be supported on Windows, MacOS and various Unixes. When Adobe bought the product, they did a beta release for Linux, but dropped
> it, much to the consternation of many users. Then they dropped Mac support, which really upset a lot of users. Now that MacOS has moved to Unix, it would seem less of an effort for them to put it back on that platform.
> Maybe more pressure from potential users is needed.
> 
> In summary: Accellera standards are destined to be IEEE standards, so they need to end up in IEEE style formatted using the IEEE templates. IEEE only support Word or FrameMaker, so they're your options.
> FrameMaker works, Word struggles. FrameMaker/SGML is probably the best option.
> 
> Cheers, 
> 
> PA