Comments on: The words and the bees http://www.tedtedted.com/2006/09/15/the-words-and-the-bees/ The dad. The entertainer. The cube rat. Wed, 07 Jan 2009 21:17:39 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.0.4 by: ted http://www.tedtedted.com/2006/09/15/the-words-and-the-bees/#comment-358 Tue, 05 Dec 2006 17:58:31 +0000 http://www.tedtedted.com/2006/09/15/the-words-and-the-bees/#comment-358 I think Winhelp's potential was not well understood for the first decade or so, even by Microsoft. That online reading and writing is in fact a new medium, and not a new way of reading and writing books, escaped a lot of people then, and still escapes a lot of people today. What's encouraging is that the DITA standard seems to incorporate this awareness. It's really hard to fall back into the book model when you are working in DITA. I think Winhelp’s potential was not well understood for the first decade or so, even by Microsoft. That online reading and writing is in fact a new medium, and not a new way of reading and writing books, escaped a lot of people then, and still escapes a lot of people today. What’s encouraging is that the DITA standard seems to incorporate this awareness. It’s really hard to fall back into the book model when you are working in DITA.

]]> by: David Locke http://www.tedtedted.com/2006/09/15/the-words-and-the-bees/#comment-323 Sun, 03 Dec 2006 04:54:37 +0000 http://www.tedtedted.com/2006/09/15/the-words-and-the-bees/#comment-323 When was "Online documentation ... effort to duplicate the experience of reading a book" When WinHelp came out, it was hypertext, a concept that had been around a long time before it got implemented. WinHelp implemented it poorly, and hypertext is still not what it should be. Every media forces changes in content, because of the constraints in the media itself. Online is another media entirely. I know how to deliver only and exactly what the reader needs, but VCs will invest in improving reading, so it isn't going to happen. When was “Online documentation … effort to duplicate the experience of reading a book”

When WinHelp came out, it was hypertext, a concept that had been around a long time before it got implemented. WinHelp implemented it poorly, and hypertext is still not what it should be.

Every media forces changes in content, because of the constraints in the media itself. Online is another media entirely.

I know how to deliver only and exactly what the reader needs, but VCs will invest in improving reading, so it isn’t going to happen.

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