Conference vaxuum::online_bookbuilding

    I would discourage the use of updates.  Reason - the OLD cdrom
    will ship every two months.  What that means is that doc groups
    have a timely release vehicle.  One of the selling points of 
    this kind of release vehicle is that we can now provide the latest
     and most uptodate documentation.  
    Why do we send out updates? To save on printing costs.  Since printing
    cost isn't something we need to consider w/cdrom it doesn't make
    sense to send out updates.  That's the direction we should follow.
    However, printing isn't the only cost involved - there are also
    writing resource sources issues.  And, ususally when time is short
    you might write an update.  I don't think we should carry that 
    model into OLD, but if you do the next note from Mary Utt explains
    what the DOCUMENT software does.

From:	CLOSET::UTT          "Mary Utt" 25-JAN-1989 08:53
To:	VMSDEV::WEISENFELD
CC:	DONNA_T
Subj:	RE: My two cents worth...

Re: change bars for ONLINE doctype.

Change bars work for  the ONLINE doctype.  So, if a writer is doing
a revision of a manual and uses the <REVISION>, <MARK>, and <ENDMARK>
tags in the source file, the output will contain change bars, just
as for hardcopy. Exactly the same coding produces exactly the same
output.

However, if a writer is doing a UPDATE for hardcopy, but we only do
revisions for online, the the writer will need to re-code the SDML
files. Updates use the <REVISION>(UPDATE\[optional-arg]), <UPDATE_RANGE>,
and <ENDUPDATE_RANGE> tags. That file will need to be converted to
<REVISION>, <MARK>, <ENDMARK> for online.

IF update ranges contain **only** new material, I could define
disable the UPDATE processing and redefine <UPDATE_RANGE>/<ENDUPDATE_RANGE>
to equate to <MARK>/<ENDMARK>. But I don't believe that is the case.
It's been millenia since I did an update but I believe that update
pages contain both old and updated information, so merely putting change
bars thoughout an update range would be inaccurate. The files would need
to be recoded.

Does this help? 

Mary
    

    Another reason for doing hardcopy updates is to save the customer
    from having to pay for a entire book when only five or ten pages
    have changed.  Also, some customers have stated that they write
    notes in the margins and prefer to replace pages to their existing
    manual.
    
    I agree that putting update pages on the CDROM doesn't make sense,
    but marking changebars on a so called revision might be something
    to consider.  A problem can arise, however, when the hardcopy is
    updated with point pages, but the manual on CDROM is repaginated
    without point pages.  
    
    I need a decision, from on high, on process.  The books on my project
    are in the process of being "updated".  The software is destined
    for the CDROM.  I can process the books with the <revision> tag
    and have changebars for the online version, but the hardcopy will
    be update pages.  I can wait until another version of the software
    requires a revision to the manuals.  I'd prefer to wait.  Do I have
    that option?

    This is very useful information.
    
    Thanks, Sarah

    RE: .3
    
    There are no page numbers on pages produced online, therefore page numbers
    (point or otherwise) in hardcopy have no effect on the online copy.
    
    

    That's a good point.  That makes life a little simpler.  

    So, do you know what to do?
    
    A few things are very clear:
     1.The information on the CDROM should reflect the information
       that exists in the hardcopy.  If that means that what's on the
    CDROm is a manual + release notes or a manual + separate update
    manual, that's a messy solution, but it meets the requirements of
    the first sentence.  A much better solution is to have a a revision
    of the manual in both hardcopy and online, but as pointed out in
    the previous notes we can't always do the best thing.
    
    2.How do changebars look on the screen? I haven;t seen any, but
    I suspect that they may look terrible.  Of course the changebars
    tags could be in the source file and they could be visible in hardcopy
    but not in online.
    
    DOes this make things more confusing?

    One thought that occurred to me relates to the comment about customers
    preferring change pages that they can insert into already marked-up
    copies of a paper manual.
    
    I'm not that familiar with the BOOKREADER yet, but from wishlist items
    it appears that it doesn't yet have capabilities to "bookmark" pages or
    make notations.  Completely replacing a book instead of doing change
    pages is probably the best method now.
    
    But what about the future?  What if we add the ability to make page
    margin comments online?  What provisions would we need to make to
    preserve annotations made by the reader, instead of doing an automatic
    reinstall that blows away their old version?
    
    Another question:  should we cross that bridge when we come to it, or
    is it worthwhile to plan now?  (!)

    Bookmarks are high on the list of Bookreader futures.
    
    As for annotations and preserving them across versions, we recognize
    the requirement for this functionality and believe that MEMEX hypertext
    services will allow us to provide it. This will be investigated
    for a future release.