Re: DD: Quick Reference card?

[Tony Graham <tgraham@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

At 16 Jun 1997 09:02 -0500, W. Eliot Kimber wrote:
 > At 12:45 PM 6/14/97 -0400, Tony Graham wrote:
 > >I hate to say it, but we don't need to produce a first version using
 > >SGML anyway.  SGML would be good for producing multiple sorts of
 > >output, and if multiple people contribute different stylesheets then
 > >the quick reference card would make a good potted example of using
 > >DSSSL, but we can still prototype the document in Word or similar.
 > 
 > Given that I never print anything I don't have to, it better be in SGML.

I don't see how the two parts of that sentence relate to each other.

 > But let me ask this question:  why would you ever consider creating
 > something as structured as a quick reference and not use SGML?  If there is
 > any kind of technical information for which SGML is necessary, it's
 > reference information. I'm frankly stunned by the above statement.

Perhaps I didn't emphasise the word "prototype" enough.  For something
where the size is small, the layout is crucial, and you don't know how
much information you are going to fit in -- such as on the six "pages"
of a tri-fold card -- then I don't have a problem playing with the
layout in Word and then going back and creating the stylesheet to
duplicate it.  Think of it as the rough draft.

A single-sheet quick reference card relies on its layout to be
effective.  If the list of expressions in the expression language puts
the last two over the page, then you have a problem despite its
structure or the technical or reference nature of the information.

I have created quick reference cards from SGML -- I did the multi-page
quick reference (using two different designs -- one for the quick
reference pages bound into the book and one for the quick reference as
a card in a pocket in the back of the book) along with the rest of the
design for the Japanese version of the manuals for (a large American
software company) -- and getting the layout right was a lot of work.
For something where I don't know what the content will be, let alone
the format, I'm happy to play with it a little then copy the font
sizes, etc., from Word into my stylesheet.

I do expect that one day I'll be able to do that sort of *prototype*
using a native SGML/DSSSL application, but we're not there yet.

I also talked about producing presbyopic and large-type options,
variations that didn't include all of the SGML, and a single-page
version and a multi-page version produced from a single source.  Did
you think I was going to use Word for those?

 > You've already got the syntax productions and explanatory text in SGML, why
 > throw that away?  

I'm not going to.

Regards,


Tony Graham
=======================================================================
Tony Graham, Consultant
Mulberry Technologies, Inc.                         Phone: 301-231-6931
6010 Executive Blvd., Suite 608                     Fax:   301-231-6935
Rockville, MD USA 20852                 email: tgraham@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
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