Manual Writing Tools?

Manual Writing Tools? 139

Posted by Cliff on Monday June 19, 2006 @05:55PM from the from-code-to-printed-man-pages dept.

Saulo Achkar writes "I've been recently assigned the task to rewrite the user's manual to a piece of relative complex software. Today, the existent manual used was developed with reStructuredText, a very nice piece of software; unfortunately, we're not able to create classes or templates for things like similar interfaces (that share the same functions), which means we need to write more code and that means more editing. XML formats aren't very friendly to code or edit in, either. What kind of techniques or tools are there to make writing manuals a bit friendlier and faster?"

Manual Writing Tools?

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Lawyers (Score:5, Funny)

by albalbo ( 33890 ) writes: on Monday June 19, 2006 @05:57PM (#15564855) Homepage

I get my lawyers to do it; they're my writting machines.

Your #1 site for quality editorial work! (Score:3, Funny)

by bunions ( 970377 ) writes: on Monday June 19, 2006 @05:58PM (#15564869)

writting!

in other news, sarcasm is the lowest form of humor.

Manual Writting Tools? (Score:5, Funny)

by ozbird ( 127571 ) writes: on Monday June 19, 2006 @06:00PM (#15564883)

If you find a good spellchecker, let the Slashdot editors know... (Manual Writing Tools.)

Re:Your #1 site for quality editorial work! (Score:5, Funny)

by DrMorris ( 156226 ) writes: on Monday June 19, 2006 @06:02PM (#15564893)

Well, that clearly tells us that this guy's looking for "writting" system that at least supports spell checking...

"Manual Writting Tool"? (Score:3, Funny)

by ctid ( 449118 ) writes: on Monday June 19, 2006 @06:05PM (#15564911) Homepage

Is this some l33t haX0r way of saying, "lawyer"?

By the way, I'm aware that this is going to look odd once the editor notices the mis-spelling of the headline to the article.

Re:Lawyers (Score:1, Funny)

by Anonymous Coward writes: on Monday June 19, 2006 @06:12PM (#15564966)

I was expecting a joke about habeas corpus, but I suppose that would be rather anachronistic.

Re:Just a suggestion... (Score:1, Funny)

by Anonymous Coward writes: on Monday June 19, 2006 @07:00PM (#15565250)

No, no, you get it all wrong! You are supposed to suggest writing everything in DocBook, using Emacs or Vim. Using efficient plain-text is so 70s. Modern people use Java-based XML-processing-frameworks that use 156MB JVM-space to process a 500 byte README.

Re:"Manual" you say? (Score:4, Funny)

by Anonymous Coward writes: on Monday June 19, 2006 @08:07PM (#15565606)

I'll take 'penis mightier' for 500

You're both wrong. (Score:3, Funny)

by Anonymous Coward writes: on Monday June 19, 2006 @11:52PM (#15566495)

He asked for "Manual," not "Automatic," writing tools. You should be recommending pencils, pens, and mechanical typewriters.

Re:"Manual" you say? (Score:3, Funny)

by SEWilco ( 27983 ) writes: on Tuesday June 20, 2006 @12:53AM (#15566736) Journal

Ditto. I like pens and typewriters.

Ah, there's nothing like the fresh smell from a ditto machine.

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Manual Writing Tools? 139

Manual Writing Tools? More Login

Manual Writing Tools?

Lawyers (Score:5, Funny)

Your #1 site for quality editorial work! (Score:3, Funny)

Manual Writting Tools? (Score:5, Funny)

Re:Your #1 site for quality editorial work! (Score:5, Funny)

"Manual Writting Tool"? (Score:3, Funny)

Re:Lawyers (Score:1, Funny)

Re:Just a suggestion... (Score:1, Funny)

Re:"Manual" you say? (Score:4, Funny)

You're both wrong. (Score:3, Funny)

Re:"Manual" you say? (Score:3, Funny)

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