Posted by: Anonymous Coward
on April 13, 2006 11:37 PM
Good point. In fact, a lot of technical writers author documentation for UNIX and Web based apps, too -- often along side Windows applications.
The problem facing FOSS technical writing tools is mindshare. For example, FrameMaker's been the de-facto standard for authoring for a long time; as has RoboHelp. There is a lot of support for and knowledge about these tools out there. Writers (generally) know these tools, accept them, and expect to use them.
Not all technical writers are fearful of change, lack technical or computer skills, or just want to stick to Windows. But they need good incentives to switch from what they (and most people in their industry) are using.
Compare this situation to a development shop that uses Visual Studio (or another closed source IDE). It would probably be difficult to get those developers to switch to Eclipse.
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Re:What is a technical writer?
Posted by: Anonymous Coward on April 13, 2006 11:37 PMThe problem facing FOSS technical writing tools is mindshare. For example, FrameMaker's been the de-facto standard for authoring for a long time; as has RoboHelp. There is a lot of support for and knowledge about these tools out there. Writers (generally) know these tools, accept them, and expect to use them.
Not all technical writers are fearful of change, lack technical or computer skills, or just want to stick to Windows. But they need good incentives to switch from what they (and most people in their industry) are using.
Compare this situation to a development shop that uses Visual Studio (or another closed source IDE). It would probably be difficult to get those developers to switch to Eclipse.
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