RE: [user-assistance-discuss] Clarifying Our Goals

["Paul Prescod" <paul.prescod@xmetal.com>]

> From: Lee Anne Kowalski [mailto:kowalski@us.ibm.com] 
> Subject: Fw: [user-assistance-discuss] Clarifying Our Goals
> 
> To clarify:
> 
> Eclipse Help is not "proprietary".

You're right Lee Ann. I did say that the listed help formats were either
specific OR proprietary. I would say that the Eclipse help format was
designed specifically for the Eclipse help runtime, and not as an
independent, generically usable format. I'm in no way impugning that
decision. In the appropriate context I'm sure I would have made the same
decision. Even at this point I would need to hear more from users and
implementors to second-guess whether there is anything wrong with having
the format be specific to Eclipse.
 
> From: Lee Anne Kowalski [mailto:kowalski@us.ibm.com] 
> Subject: Re: [user-assistance-discuss] Announcing the 
> user-assistance-discuss mailing list
> 
> > The User Assistance Discussion List is a place for members 
> of the user 
> > assistance and technical communications community to define the 
> > requirements for a User Assistance Authoring standard based 
> upon XML.
> 
> Hi Paul,
> 
> Is there some background on why you have stated this as 
> requirements for User Assistance *Authoring* specifically?
> 
> Vs requirements for standards for user assistance in general?

In the other message, Clarifying our Goals, I did talk about a variety
of potential goals including the creation of requirements for UA
delivery and display. My personal thought on that part is that it would
be important to have buy-in from developers of help runtime engines
(e.g. can you speak for Eclipse?) before going down that path. I
represent a vendor of authoring tools so I can guarantee that that a UA
authoring standard will actually be adopted by someone. If
representatives of runtime engines are similarly willing to step up and
participate then I would love to work with them! At the moment I don't
even know how to contact them. Perhaps you know the relevant people for
the Eclipse world. Perhaps Norm knows the relevant people for the
JavaHelp world. Perhaps through other contacts we can find people who
know about Oracle Help, Apple Help etc.

Going back to the "Clarifying our Goals" email: how would you prioritize
the goals?

 Paul Prescod