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The Naysayer’s Argument

Single-sourcing and API documentation generated from code has caused many heated debates in various online forums for technical writers.

Single-Sourcing Naysayers

Some feel that the effort required to implement documentation processes that allow you to write-once and generate-many-outputs isn’t cost-effective. They say:

• Implementing the processes and maintaining them distract the technical writers from their primary purpose of writing content.

• Single-sourcing degrades the content of the output formats, because you can no longer apply the text, tone, and information applicable to the different mediums.

• Single-sourcing tools can be crude, can require extensive customizing, can produce imperfect output always needing tweaking, and are thus not always a time-saver.

• Most organizations do not produce enough documentation to warrant such a major investment in a complex documentation system.



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Open-Source tools compliments of Voyant Technologies, Inc. and Glenn C. Maxey.
01/13/2003

TP Tools v2-00-0a

# tpt-hug-02