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:: By successful, I guess I mean successful for the user. Is
:: it usable? Is it valuable?
:: I can tell whether it is single-sourced or stand-alone when
:: someone I'm
:: interviewing shows me samples and talks about the valiant,
:: two-year struggle
:: to get single-sourcing in place, and what I'm looking at is a mess.
:: BZZZZ--that candidate IS the weakest link. Goodbye.
Well, in that case I agree. But in general, it's hard to tell whether a
piece was single-sourced or independently developed just by looking at its
end result. And in the case of two really good examples, one single-sourced
and one independently developed, it'd be hard to determine which is which
(without being sneaky and viewing the underlying code).
:: The time and effort I've seen many organizations put
:: towards a single-source
:: solution could have been used more efficiently to produce
:: good, usable
:: documentation in print and online. I'm not saying that
:: single-sourcing is
:: impossible. But it involves a lot more than a tool or a
:: set of macros or
:: styles--which is what a lot of writers I've talked to think is more
:: important that looking at the big picture, costs, and the like.
I agree here as well. You need to know what you're getting into, what you
want to do, and how you're going to do it before you even START to think
about tools. Otherwise you're no better off than a 10-month-old with an open
can of Play Dough. :)
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BILL SWALLOW
Technical Writer
C O U R I O N C O R P O R A T I O N
1881 Worcester Road
Framingham, Mass. 01701
T E L * 508-879-8400 x316
F A X * 508-879-8500
www.courion.com
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