Updated: 24 May 2001

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

The writers work with software engineers and product managers to identify information that customers need. At the same time that engineering develops design documents and functional specifications, the writer completes a detailed documentation plan. Writing begins early in the software development process.

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 DIGITAL markup 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.

Our production tool, DEC Document from Touch Technologies, merges the marked-up text and graphic files to generate all the formats in which we deliver out information sets: PostScript, HTML, text files, Bookreader, and DCL help.

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