verilog, Word or Adobe Framemaker?

Word or Adobe Framemaker?

Author	Message
Andrew Maz #1 / 9	Word or Adobe Framemaker? Currently we are choosing the way to write our Specification - Design Specification, Test Plan etc. As far as I know, Adobe Framemaker was preferable approach before. Now, some companies still work with Adobe, and some use MS Word. I am looking for any recommendations or advices which tool to choose. regards, -Andrew
Mon, 26 Dec 2005 01:08:04 GMT

Rudolf Usselma #2 / 9	Word or Adobe Framemaker? Quote: > Currently we are choosing the way to write our Specification - Design > Specification, Test Plan etc. > As far as I know, Adobe Framemaker was preferable approach before. > Now, some companies still work with Adobe, and some use MS Word. I am > looking for any recommendations or advices which tool to choose. > regards, > -Andrew My personal favorite was always FrameMaker. Clearly structured and extremely powerful tool. Everything from great layout to simple graphics. I could never get Word to create a decent looking document. I have spend many, many hours trying, but it never looked professional. WAIT ! Before you make a decisions consider a third choice: OpenOffice. With the latest release of OpenOffice, it is a very stable and very powerful alternative to what we are used from Adobe and Micro$oft. Printing and PDF generation as well as import and export from/to many different formats is working wonderful. Due to lack of support from Adobe for it's Linux Customers (FrameMaker is not available for Linux), we have switched to OpenOffice. Even though it does resemble more Word style than FrameMaker style menus and layout, it seems to produce professional looking documents (check out the product briefs on our web site). So, good-buy Adobe, come-in OpenOffice ! Regards, rudi -------------------------------------------------------- www.asics.ws --- Solutions for your ASIC/FPGA needs --- ----------------- FPGAs * Full Custom ICs * IP Cores --- FREE IP Cores --> http://www.asics.ws/ <-- FREE IP Cores
Mon, 26 Dec 2005 12:52:24 GMT

Marco Fiorett #3 / 9	Word or Adobe Framemaker? Quote: >>Currently we are choosing the way to write our Specification - Design >>Specification, Test Plan etc. >>As far as I know, Adobe Framemaker was preferable approach before. >>Now, some companies still work with Adobe, and some use MS Word. I am >>looking for any recommendations or advices which tool to choose. >>regards, >>-Andrew > My personal favorite was always FrameMaker. Clearly structured > and extremely powerful tool. Everything from great layout to > simple graphics. > I could never get Word to create a decent looking document. > I have spend many, many hours trying, but it never looked > professional. I confirm 100% what Rudolf says. FrameMaker is much more stable, fast and productive in our kind of work. In my company, the designers forced to switch to Word still complain after years how much easier and productive it was to do technical documents with FrameMaker and switch back to it whenever they can. The designers who knew Word, but were patient enough to learn Framemaker all agree after the first two/three weeks. A minority of colleagues just refuse on principle to use anything that is not Microsoft, even when it makes them slower. When proposed to use FrameMaker they object, among other things, that it is a "niche product". Even if it were true, so what? We are talking of a niche kind of documents: the professional thing to do is to use what is better for your job, not what people with other needs find better. As far as OOo, is concerned, remember it was meant to replace MS Office. Hence, while better, free, etc... it has the same limitations of Word when it comes to write complex technical documents with lots of tables, cross references, embedded diagrams, etc... FrameMaker!!!! Ciao, Marco
Mon, 26 Dec 2005 14:27:51 GMT

Andrew Maz #4 / 9	Word or Adobe Framemaker? Rudolf, Marco, Thank you for your great feedbacks. Myself, I also prefer FrameMaker. However, I still have the following concerns: 1. Almost all of our documents now are written under Windows. For example, we use Adobe Framemaker, but Windows (not Unix) version. I think that the main reason to use Windows is reach set of another applications (graphical editors etc) which can be embedded into Spec. 2. Recent discussions in this group show the value of Excel for direct document-to-code extraction. So it is possible to do the same with Word tables, and I am not sure about Adobe. 3. For me, it sounds a bit risky to use "free" and new products like Open Office: we may spend more time debugging the tool rather than writing specification. Any comments? -Regards, Andrew Mazin
Mon, 26 Dec 2005 21:17:35 GMT

Rudolf Usselma #5 / 9	Word or Adobe Framemaker? Quote: > Rudolf, > Marco, > Thank you for your great feedbacks. > Myself, I also prefer FrameMaker. > However, I still have the following concerns: > 1. Almost all of our documents now are written under Windows. > For example, we use Adobe Framemaker, but Windows (not Unix) version. > I think that the main reason to use Windows is reach set of another > applications (graphical editors etc) which can be embedded into Spec. Traditionally I have used FrameMaker on SUNs. After switching to Linux, I tried to maintain a Windows box for FrameMaker. However, under Windows, I could never get the WYSIWG working. My printed documents alway looked missaligned. For a while I maintained a Mac just for running FrameMaker, but that became a problem as well, as Apples strategies seemed to make transitions between their own OSes very painful and time intensive. I am a happy camper now with OpenOffice, even though it is not perfect (yet ?) as well, I will wait and see what the future will bring. At least I don't have to shell out the big $$$ anymore ... At one point Adobe teased us with a "beta/trial" version of FM for Linux, but I guess we (the Linux users) don't matter to them ... Quote: > 2. Recent discussions in this group show the value of Excel for direct > document-to-code extraction. So it is possible to do the same with > Word tables, and I am not sure about Adobe. FrameMaker supports a MIF (Maker Interchange Format). Which is purely ascii text and contains all formatting information. At one point I wrote a perl script to extract module interconnects from tables in large specifications and create verilog top level from that. I was a consultant at CISCO at that point so they own that script now ... Quote: > 3. For me, it sounds a bit risky to use "free" and new products like > Open Office: we may spend more time debugging the tool rather than > writing specification. Well, I for one feel better take care of by the "free" community than by someone like MiroSoft or Adobe. Look at it: Bugs and issues are discussed openly; I always know where I stand with them; If there is an issue I feel very strongly about - I can take the source code and extend/modify it (or pay somebody to do it for me). Are any of you doing multi language docs ? It's a pain with Windows and MacOS. With OO all I had to do is to install the additional spell checker. It is obvious that Adobe does not consider us "important" customers. Thats OK - in 10 years when 99% of computers are running Linux, I will not consider Adobe important as well and will continue using OO ! Quote: > Any comments? > -Regards, > Andrew Mazin Best Regards, rudi -------------------------------------------------------- www.asics.ws --- Solutions for your ASIC/FPGA needs --- ----------------- FPGAs * Full Custom ICs * IP Cores --- FREE IP Cores --> http://www.asics.ws/ <-- FREE IP Cores
Tue, 27 Dec 2005 13:39:51 GMT

Rudolf Usselma #6 / 9	Word or Adobe Framemaker? Quote: > Rudolf, > Marco, > Thank you for your great feedbacks. > Myself, I also prefer FrameMaker. > However, I still have the following concerns: > 1. Almost all of our documents now are written under Windows. > For example, we use Adobe Framemaker, but Windows (not Unix) version. > I think that the main reason to use Windows is reach set of another > applications (graphical editors etc) which can be embedded into Spec. Sorry, after reading what I just posted I want to make one more point: OpenOffice DOES have the equivalent of Excell and Illustrator and a Paint/Draw program. Again take a look at our product briefs. They are written with OpenOffice under RH 8.0. PDF generation and printing is very easy and straight forward. And we didn't have to spend a single penny on it !!! Cheers, rudi -------------------------------------------------------- www.asics.ws --- Solutions for your ASIC/FPGA needs --- ----------------- FPGAs * Full Custom ICs * IP Cores --- FREE IP Cores --> http://www.asics.ws/ <-- FREE IP Cores Quote: > 2. Recent discussions in this group show the value of Excel for direct > document-to-code extraction. So it is possible to do the same with > Word tables, and I am not sure about Adobe. > 3. For me, it sounds a bit risky to use "free" and new products like > Open Office: we may spend more time debugging the tool rather than > writing specification. > Any comments? > -Regards, > Andrew Mazin
Tue, 27 Dec 2005 13:46:03 GMT

B. Joshua Rose #7 / 9	Word or Adobe Framemaker? Quote: >> Rudolf, >> Marco, >> Thank you for your great feedbacks. >> Myself, I also prefer FrameMaker. >> However, I still have the following concerns: >> 1. Almost all of our documents now are written under Windows. For >> example, we use Adobe Framemaker, but Windows (not Unix) version. I >> think that the main reason to use Windows is reach set of another >> applications (graphical editors etc) which can be embedded into Spec. > Sorry, after reading what I just posted I want to make one more point: > OpenOffice DOES have the equivalent of Excell and Illustrator and a > Paint/Draw program. Again take a look at our product briefs. They are > written with OpenOffice under RH 8.0. PDF generation and printing is > very easy and straight forward. And we didn't have to spend a single > penny on it !!! > Cheers, > rudi > -------------------------------------------------------- www.asics.ws > --- Solutions for your ASIC/FPGA needs --- ----------------- FPGAs * > Full Custom ICs * IP Cores --- FREE IP Cores --> http://www.asics.ws/ > <-- FREE IP Cores >> 2. Recent discussions in this group show the value of Excel for direct >> document-to-code extraction. So it is possible to do the same with Word >> tables, and I am not sure about Adobe. >> 3. For me, it sounds a bit risky to use "free" and new products like >> Open Office: we may spend more time debugging the tool rather than >> writing specification. >> Any comments? >> -Regards, >> Andrew Mazin I've been using both Word and Framemaker under Win4Lin on Linux and frankly I've found them both adequate. I have a slight preference for Framemaker but I don't mind using Word. With the release of Gnome2 (specifically the Ximian version, Ximian Desktop2), OpenOffice has finally crossed the threshold of usability. Prior to Gnome2 the font rendering on Linux was so awful that OpenOffice/StarOffice was a complete non-starter. The font rendering problem is now fixed so OpenOffice is in the running. I have a question for the OpenOffice users. When generating PDF files can it create bookmarks? As far as I know there is no version of Acrobat for Linux, just Acrobat Reader. There is something called xPDF but I haven't tried it. One of my pet peeves are PDF documents that don't have bookmarks. If OpenOffice can generate a PDF file with bookmarks then I'd say it's ready for serious documentation work, if it can't then I'd stick with Framemaker or Word.
Wed, 28 Dec 2005 03:05:34 GMT

Rudolf Usselma #8 / 9	Word or Adobe Framemaker? Quote: > I've been using both Word and Framemaker under Win4Lin on Linux and > frankly I've found them both adequate. I have a slight preference for > Framemaker but I don't mind using Word. With the release of Gnome2 > (specifically the Ximian version, Ximian Desktop2), OpenOffice has finally > crossed the threshold of usability. Prior to Gnome2 the font rendering on > Linux was so awful that OpenOffice/StarOffice was a complete non-starter. > The font rendering problem is now fixed so OpenOffice is in the running. > I have a question for the OpenOffice users. When generating PDF files can > it create bookmarks? As far as I know there is no version of Acrobat for > Linux, just Acrobat Reader. There is something called xPDF but I haven't > tried it. One of my pet peeves are PDF documents that don't have > bookmarks. If OpenOffice can generate a PDF file with bookmarks then I'd say > it's ready for serious documentation work, if it can't then I'd stick with > Framemaker or Word. Unfortunately at this time I believe OpenOffice can not generate bookmarks. This is a big drawback. However the choice for me is still set. I rather support OpenOffice and Linux than MicroSoft and Adobe. I'm sure that support will come sooner or later ... Regards, rudi -------------------------------------------------------- www.asics.ws --- Solutions for your ASIC/FPGA needs --- ----------------- FPGAs * Full Custom ICs * IP Cores --- FREE IP Cores --> http://www.asics.ws/ <-- FREE IP Cores
Wed, 28 Dec 2005 21:51:06 GMT

Heidelberg Digita #9 / 9	Word or Adobe Framemaker? Quote: > > I've been using both Word and Framemaker under Win4Lin on Linux and > > frankly I've found them both adequate. I have a slight preference for > > Framemaker but I don't mind using Word. With the release of Gnome2 > > (specifically the Ximian version, Ximian Desktop2), OpenOffice has finally > > crossed the threshold of usability. Prior to Gnome2 the font rendering on > > Linux was so awful that OpenOffice/StarOffice was a complete non-starter. > > The font rendering problem is now fixed so OpenOffice is in the running. > > I have a question for the OpenOffice users. When generating PDF files can > > it create bookmarks? As far as I know there is no version of Acrobat for > > Linux, just Acrobat Reader. There is something called xPDF but I haven't > > tried it. One of my pet peeves are PDF documents that don't have > > bookmarks. If OpenOffice can generate a PDF file with bookmarks then I'd say > > it's ready for serious documentation work, if it can't then I'd stick with > > Framemaker or Word. > Unfortunately at this time I believe OpenOffice can not > generate bookmarks. This is a big drawback. However the > choice for me is still set. I rather support OpenOffice > and Linux than MicroSoft and Adobe. I'm sure that support > will come sooner or later ... I do not have actually used it, but there is scribus at http://web2.altmuehlnet.de/fschmid/ according to it's website Scribus is a desktop page layout program in the tradition of Corel Ventura, Quark Xpress, Pagemaker and InDesign. it can export PDF and according to it's documentation at http://home.comcast.net/~scribusdocs/pdfexport.html#ss3.11 it supports Annotations, Thumbnails, Bookmarks. Klaus Leiss
Sun, 01 Jan 2006 20:02:29 GMT

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