DOCBOOK-APPS: Arbortext Document Architect

["Gershon Leib Joseph" <gershon at mainsoft dot com>]

All,

Since a few people mentioned this, I thought I'd shed some light on the
issue.

Arbortext sales reps in the US tell you that you have to purchase at least
one copy of DocArch when you become an Adept or Epic customer. This is
nonsense, since most people find DocArch an irritation to work with.

Arbortext Europe discourage you from buying it, because they feel it's a
waste of money (my sentiments exactly).

At my previous employer, we bought DocArch because we thought we needed it
(we bought via our US office). At my current employer, we did not purchase
it. (We purchased via Arbortext Europe, who advised us fairly)

I develop DTDs, ATDs, and FOSIs using only Epic Publisher. There is NO NEED
for DocArch. I prefer using emacs than DocArch's DTD and ATD editors for
editing DTDs and ATDs... I edit FOSIs using Publisher's tagged FOSI editor.

As far as other authoring tools go, we looked at the SoftQuad and Interleaf
SGML/XML authoring tools, but could not get either of those companies
interested in making sales. We got tired of running after their sales
people, and felt that their tech support would probably be worse than their
sales efforts. We've always been satisfied with Arbortext's support, though
they are sometimes slow to get back to you.

No-one has mentioned WordPerfect9 in this thread. It's possibly the best
value-for-money GUI XML/SGML editor. You can't seriously publish from it,
though. I use it for authoring at home. FWIW, I use Jade and Omnimark to
publish the stuff I author in WP9.

Cheers,

Gershon.

------------------------------------------------------------
Gershon L Joseph              Technical Publications Manager
Mainsoft Corporation
Ofek 1 Building 2,            +972-8-978 1300 X363 (Voice)
North Industrial Area,        +972-8-921 9389 (Fax)
Lod  71293, Israel            gershon@mainsoft.com (e-mail)