Document revision date: 11 May 1999

How did they do that?

Who and where

OSSG (Open Systems Software Group) documentation is a team of writers, editors, artists, and production people located at the Compaq software engineering facility in Nashua, New Hampshire, USA, and at the Compaq networking facility in Littleton, Massachusetts, USA.

Developing the information

Writers work with software engineers and product managers to identify information that customers need.

Writing begins early in the software development process. While the engineering team develops design documents and functional specifications for new or enhanced product features, the writer completes a detailed documentation plan.

Using engineering design documents and functional specifications, the writer begins to draft the product documentation. Through formal and informal meetings and reviews, the writer verifies that the documentation content is correct. At the same time, the writer works with editors and artists, the other members of the documentation team. The editor reviews the information for style and ease of use, as well as content and language; the artist designs and develops figures and diagrams that support the text information.

Producing the information

The writers and artists use a variety of tools to create text and graphic information.

For text creation, writers use standard text-creation tools, from text editors to word processors. All text information is coded in SDML, a standard markup (tagged) language.

For graphics creation, artists use Mac® or PC drawing tools. All graphic information is saved as .EPS or .GIF files for inclusion in hardcopy or online documents.

For production, OSSG production specialists use DECdocument from Touch Technologies. DECdocument merges the marked-up text and graphic files to generate all the formats in which OpenVMS delivers information: PostScript, HTML, text files, Bookreader, and DCL help.

Creating PDF files

Using the PostScript files created with DECdocument, the documentation team generates PDF files with Adobe Acrobat. As time allows, the writers or editors edit the generated PDF files and build a linked table of contents for the file.

Archiving, branding, staging, and delivering HTML files

OSSG documentation tools specialists have written custom DCL scripts that allow the documentation team to archive and brand the HTML files generated by DECdocument. These scripts automatically archive and brand the HTML for internal servers, external servers, or CD-ROM delivery.

After branding the HTML files for a specific destination, the production specialists stage the files (HTML, PS, and PDF) on Windows NT systems (running Microsoft Internet Information Server) or on OpenVMS systems (running Process Software Purveyor WebServer). This process allows us to test a website under actual conditions. The documentation team uses a combination of hand-checking (visual inspection), HTML parsers (HoTMetaL), and automated tools (LinkBot) to verify coding and links within the web.

When the documentation team completes the staging and testing, the production specialists deliver the completed website to the appropriate server or to software manufacturing and other distribution channels.

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