[Tutor] Advice required: Documentation Writing / Sofware Test ing

[alan.gauld@bt.com]

> whitepapers, etc. so I'd like to know of any resources / advice on
> writing documentation. I'm not so much interested on the "how tos", on
> ...
> On second thoughts, I'd also like any advice on a good "system" for
> generating docs. I have used (briefly) LaTeX, and DocBook, and the
> classical "HTML and play with it"... but is there any "killer 
> app", any "must have" for this?

Depends on their funds.

But the classic app for large scale documentation that must support 
multiple versions, multiple platforms(web, paper, PDF etc) is Adobe 
FrameMaker. There really is little to compare with it.

Look at the Adobe site for details. The UI takes a little getting 
used to - its not like MS Word - as it is a document publishing system 
and optimised for that. It is also not cheap! But it is the publishing
industry standard tool for large documents. Many book publishers will 
accept little else.

Next best is probably LaTeX with its array of conversion filters. 

And in all cases backed up with good version control - CVS for example.


Alan g.
Author of the 'Learning to Program' web site
http://www.freenetpages.co.uk/hp/alan.gauld