🚀 go-pugleaf

I have had some experience with Frame on the Mac and Sun, and I thought
I would add a few comments for anyone who is interested.


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In article <5213@ethz.UUCP> mr@ethz.UUCP (Marc Raths) writes:
>First a word of caution: I don't have access to FrameMaker on a Mac but
>Frame Technology says it is the same as on a Sun so comments may well apply.

I have an authorized evaluation copy of Frame for the Mac.  The
implementation is very good.  However, I would stongly recommend using
at least their minimum recommended system of a Mac SE/30 or better.  I
have tried it on a regular SE with 4MB memory, a FPD and a 40MB HD, and
even straight text editing is really slow.

Oh, I would also recommend using Adobe Type Manager.  It is common to
use variable levels of zoom in your documents, and I believe you get
smoother text.  I haven't tried this, but that is what I've heard.

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>FrameMaker has been developed for technical publications but can be put to 
>good use in other areas as well. It more than a DTP package since it has a 
>text editor that rivals many dedicated word processors, tools for book buil-
>ding (index, auto numbering etc.), full DTP (multiple flows on a page etc.),
>graphics, math typesetting as easy as word processing and hypertext capa-
>bilities. 

Frame is very strong as a WP/DTP package, but considering that it was
developed for technical publications, it is definitely lacking in a few
important features.  First, it has no table editor.  You can do some
table operations using the formatting templates and techniques that frame 
provides, but it is definitely a kludge.  Anyone who has used the table
editor in Arbortext Publisher knows what a good table editor is.

The formula editor in Frame is quite good, but I am disappointed with
the limited ability to resize equations (you get three sizes, small,
medium and large).  Also, you have to manually line up '=' signs in
stacked equations, and you 

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>Graphics is excellent for complex drawings but without flashy shading
>effects or curved text etc.

My personal experience is that the graphics editor in Frame is somewhat
limited.  It is roughly equivalent to an early version of MacDraw v1.x.
You can only rotate objects to 90 degree angles, etc.  It is also purely
object oriented - there are no painting capabilities.  Note that
Publisher has very functional tools for both object oriented graphics
and painting programs.

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>... or even create a hot link.
>This is ouput data from an other program. When in FrameMaker, double
>clicking on it starts up this other program and lets you edit data there.
>When you're done, data is automatically pasted in the document.

I think it should be pointed out that any applications that you are
going to hot link to must be set up to use Sun's Remote Procedure Calls
(RPC).  I am currently waiting for a catalog from Frame which lists all
the applications that currently hot link.  

However, with the support that Frame is receiving in the industry, I
feel confident that there are going to be one hell of a lot of tools
that work with it in the next few years.  This will certainly help to
address any particular deficiencies that Frame may have in
functionality.

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>On Suns there is a free evaluation copy of the software available (saving
>disabled) - I don't know about Macs.

We have a fully functional evaluation copy that we got from Frame
directly.  We are, however, a fairly big potential client and I don't
know whether such copies are commonly available (I doubt it).

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I feel that Frame is definitely the best WP/DTP package that I've used,
but it has some definite drawbacks.  It would be great to be able to use
some of the features in Publisher's tools (Tables, Graphics, Formulas) 
with FrameMaker

We recently brought in a couple of reps from Frame Technologies.  I was
impressed by their product and the pace with which they are bringing out
new releases.  So far they have been very good at meeting their
projected deadlines.  They informed us that a version 3.0 of Frame will
be coming out in November/December for the Sun (with other platforms
following over the next 3-6 months).  This new version will address
tables more effectively, as well as several other of my concerns.
Apparently, effectivity control (as in Interleaf) is coming too.



Oh, by the way, I'm not really very fond of Publisher.  It has some
great tools and general capabilities, but I found the product extremely
difficult to work with.  I really don't like the user interface - either
for the main program or it's tools (table editor, drawing program,
painting program).  Maybe it is partly because I am from the Mac world,
but I found the interface was bizarre and non-intuitive.