Publisher vs FrameMaker

[Chuck Musciano]

> Now, can anyone tell me whether we should have bought
> FrameMaker instead, what it does that we can't now do, and what it costs?

After all my postings about Frame, I should make clear that I don't work
for Frame, but I do like their product.

I found Publisher to be a backwards step from Frame.  First, it failed
Musciano's Law of New Software: I sat down without the manual and tried to
do something productive.  I got nowhere.  I couldn't figure out how to
create a simple document.  With Frame, I did all sorts of things,
multi-column documents, line art, different text flows, and never picked
up the manual.  Strike One against Publisher.

Publisher is not a WYSISYG package.  It is a compose/preview package.
This is completely unacceptable in my book.  I find it annoying to
continuously move back and forth between compose and preview windows to
check my work.  Frame is true WYSIWYG, and has good response to even
complex document modifications.  Strike Two.

The user interface is poor.  Commands which do one thing in the compose
window do another in the preview window.  For example, I seem to recall
that in compose, you used ^H, ^J, ^K, and ^L to move around (which is bad
enough) but in preview you used B, F, P, and N (backwards, forwards,
previous, and next).  I don't want to learn two tools in one!  I found the
Frame interface intuitive, with a nice balance of menus for novices and
keyboard commands for experts.  Strike Three.

The drawing programs are separate tools.  Again, I don't want to learn N
tools, I want to learn one.  Frame is fully integrated, except for table
of contents and index generation (which bothers me, but is outweighed by
other features).  Strike Four.

Overall, Publisher seems targetted to people who know TeX.  Why do you
want to hang on to old technology when all this wonderful new stuff is
coming out?  Do you really care what the internal representation of your
document is?  What does it matter if it is TeX, PostScript, or C/A/T?  I
can insert PostScript into my Frame documents (and do occasionally) to
accomplish the few things that Frame cannot.

Frame is, I believe, $995/station at educational rates.  With the floating
license server, you can actually get away with much less.  For example,
suppose, you have 15 stations, but actual use of Maker is about four
simultaneous users.  Just buy four licenses, and share them among the 15
Suns.  The license server idea is one which needs to be picked up by other
companies.

Finally, why don't you just check it out for yourself?  Send a 1/4" tape
to Frame, and they'll send you a demo copy.  Call 1-408-433-3311 for more
information.

Chuck Musciano
Advanced Technology Department
Harris Corporation
(407) 727-6131
ARPA: chuck at trantor.harris-atd.com