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Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cornell!uw-beaver!ubc-cs!alberta!idacom!danny
From: danny@idacom.UUCP (Danny Wilson)
Newsgroups: comp.text,comp.text.desktop
Subject: Re: Which is better?  Textprocessing langs or DeskTop publishing pgms?
Message-ID: <722@idacom.UUCP>
Date: 16 Sep 89 21:33:47 GMT
References: <509@mjbtn.MFEE.TN.US> <2650@trantor.harris-atd.com> <2671@trantor.harris-atd.com>
Organization: IDACOM Electronics Ltd., Edmonton, Alta.
Lines: 44
Summary: Context Corp.

The discussion about Interleaf, Frame and the Publisher are just fine,
however, I think that a really exceptional publishing package is
'DOC' from Context Corp.

When comparing the document layout features against Frame, Frame
is really just a toy.  Interleaf comes close, but the graphics
creation and editing capabilites of Doc are, in fact, superior.

DOC supports CALS and straight text input using SGML. However, the
most outstanding feature is the Change Control functionality.

Our Interleaf salesman tried to sell us on their equivalent
function, but it didn't hit close.

Change control allows revision control and support for 'variant' 
documents.  This means that within a single master document 
can be all versions of a software manual (V1.0, V1.1 etc). 
With only the 'active' version visible at one time.

'Variant' documents are possible which allow, for example, both a
North American (eg."Plug into a 110V socket") and a European
(eg. "Plug into the 220V mains") version of the document within
a single file.  For you software guys, it is like the power of
RCS/SCCS/DSEE-like database fully integrated into your document
production system.

We use Context products in our Documentation Publishing Dept.
for producing user software manuals for our equipment. Its 
power for handling many documents of large size make it
a 'perfect fit' for us.

(Our engineering department has been using Frame for almost as 
long as we have been using Doc -- after a long evalution, for
serious publishing we think it really is just a toy)

**DISCLAIMER:  I am not trying to sell this product - I am only 
               a _very_ happy user.


-- 
Danny Wilson
IDACOM Electronics		danny@idacom.uucp
Edmonton, Alberta		{att, watmath, ubc-cs}!alberta!idacom!danny
C A N A D A