A DITA & DITA Open Toolkit Reading List

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I was in the process of reorganizing my computer science and technical writing shelf today during lunch when I began to notice a pattern: I have quite a few books related to DITA and the underlying technologies of the DITA Open Toolkit. Well, this isn’t by coincidence. It’s a big part of my job and something I’m really interested in. But it occurred to me just how much time I’ve spent pouring through these texts of structured authoring and XML-based technology—all in hopes of grokking this for my job.

Some Light Reading on DITA

So, in no particular order, here’s a list of some of my books on the subject:

DITA

XML

A couple of books on Ant & JavaScript that I haven’t even gotten to yet:

And, some wider shots of my (sort of) organized bookshelves:

Non-Fiction Bookshelves

Office Shelves

  1. I have the first edition. I’d recommend getting the later edition.↵

Looking Ahead into 2012

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I tend to write this sort of post every year. It’s not really a set of resolutions, just goals. That is, I rarely say to myself "I will do this from now on." but rather "This is what I’d like to try to accomplish this year." Small difference, but probably worth noting.

So, in no particular order (though numbered anyway):

  1. Blog more about the kids

    They’re getting older and doing more. As Angela noted in her remark on Facebook about getting a minivan, it’s just a matter of time until we’re taking them to soccer practice.

  2. Become more fluent in XML development

    I can still recall the day Jason Johnson explained to me about what XML was. It seemed so simple then… Now I’m writing XSL transforms as part of my job and concerned with information architecture. It’s been absolutely fascinating and a way to actually do some programming with a real goal1.

  3. Visit more family & friends

    Despite every means of communication that mankind has ever conceived, we (our household, that is) still somehow remain out-of-touch with so many of our relatives. As our kids are getting older2 we are at a point where we can just do it the old-fashioned way and visit (no letter writing campaign just yet, though). We certainly have some older members in the family and it would be a shame to someday have to explain to the kids why they never met.

  4. Create more

    Photography, videos, writing, drawing, and so on. Our daughter has become very interested in art and has shown a real creative streak. I remember when I used to just draw,write a short story, or make up a tune for fun and I need to get back there somehow. Will I end up with dozens of unfinished bits? Most assuredly. However, the point to this is enjoying making something; not necessarily the final product.

  5. Eat healthier

    Okay, so I have to admit that this is starting to sound like a classic New Year’s resolution. Surely, he’ll mention going to the gym more next, right? Of course, losing weight may be an added benefit, but I’m really just interested in trying out new foods. I’m married to a real foodie and it’s really something she loves that I’d like to take a bigger interest in. Certainly, I’d like to add in things like fruits & vegetables that have never really been a staple of my diet3. We’ve always tried out best to cook a lot at home and the kids are starting to even get involved. So, as much as it sounds like a simple, shallow New Year’s resolution, it’s a much a part of the previous goal as it is just trying to be healthy.

  6. Exercise

    Yes, yes. This guy just doesn’t want to admit he’s make resolutions. But Angela really inspired me this past year by setting out some goals, running some big races, and doing really well. So, I’ve already signed up for a big half-marathon this year and I’ll try to run at least a short race every month.

So, it all looks a lot like most of my goals for previous years. That doesn’t mean that I never accomplished those goals; just that they were good ones and worth moving the goal line to get more out of them.

  1. Aside from just learning, which is a good-enough goal; just one that takes a lot more dedication than I’m usually willing to throw at it.↵
  2. And, oh yeah, that insanely nice minivan.↵
  3. I recently tried Brussels sprouts for the first time in my life and, many, are they good!↵

Regular Expressions versus XSLT

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Last week I came across an epic rant within a forum thread1 about why using regular expressions for parsing XML is a bad idea.

The <center> cannot hold it is too late. The force of regex and HTML together in the same conceptual space will destroy your mind like so much watery putty.

At first, I was a little surprised. I love using regular expressions to make bulk changes throughout an XHTML document or even across a project consisting of hundreds of files. But, after reading through the post several times and thinkng about what I’ve been able to accomplish with some (relatively) simple XSLT files and a XML parser, it occurred to me that it is absolutely correct.

You, see as great as regular expressions are, they are not aware of the context. They have no idea if your matching a pattern within a C++ routine or an XHTML file. They can only parse characters and short strings as they are, with no understanding of their meaning.

EXstensible Stylesheet Language Transforms, on the other hand, are solely for the purpose of manipulating XML content. By definition, they are aware of XML elements and their attributes. The entire purpose of them is high-level modifications. In fact, after having used them now to successfully convert some XHTML to DITA XML, I have to say the powers feel almost god-like.

RegEx still have their use with XML—particularly with badly formed SGML/HTML one might have had dumped in their lap. But if the need is actually manipulating XML elements or attributes within a file (or even across files), then it’s really foolish to try to accomplish something with multiple regular expressions when a single XSL template will do (and often without the unintended consequences of a greedy RegEx).

  1. And when I say epic, I mean it goes from making a case as to why RegEx is simply insufficiently high-level enough to deal with HTML parsing to opening the gates of the abyss and letting the deep ones in to your mind.↵

Just Take Advantage of It

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As something of a follow-up to Friday’s piece on companies like Netflix moving towards content creation and apps on newer, third-party devices, I noted my employer’s CEO being quoted in a Engineering News Record piece on Bentley’s recent announcements (emphasis added):

[Greg] Bentley credited the rapid proliferation and repurposing of consumer products, such as the iPad, into wirelessly connected field tools for construction as accelerants to the development of new processes for the collection and exchange of project and asset information. He says it is a “tremendous” moment for software developers, who no longer have to struggle to find hardware capable of supporting innovations. “Thank goodness we don’t have to invent it, just take advantage of it,” he said.

Bentley doesn’t make any hardware and their acquisitions that once did (such as Intergraph) now exclusively support third-party hardware. Taking advantage of hardware on third-party devices to move them into new and creative markets benefits everyone in that three-party arrangement. (via Rick Stavanja)

Burning at Both Ends

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Anyone who has read this blog in the past (thanks, Mom!) knows that I’m a fan of Netflix as well as the Fox Network show Arrested Development. Today, Netflix announced that it is going to be bringing back Arrested Development in 2012 exclusively to their streaming video service; firmly placing them in the category of a premium cable channel. I’m also a fan of Apple and Amazon, who along with Netflix, are businesses which represent the future of the entertainment industry and media consumption, though in significantly different ways.

Jon Gruber stated the other day that he didn’t think Netflix was capable of creating hardware to support an “end-to-end solution.” I don’t disagree that there’s essentially no chance Netflix will move beyond the app business and into actual hardware1. But I disagree with the notion that Apple and Amazon are providing end-to-end solutions. In fact, what Apple and Amazon are really providing are middle-to-one-end solutions. That is, they take content licensed from a studio and serve it over their systems to their hardware2. Netflix, however, is moving to the other end by creating content to serve on their systems to someone else’s hardware platform via an app. In doing so, they get a wider installed base with no hardware investment (which no one other than Apple has really yet to crack; though the Kindle Fire from Amazon is just a week old).

Netflix has dabbled with being a studio in the past, or at least a financier of independent film. Their folded Red Envelope Entertainment—which backed some really great indie films—was a worthy try, but competed against some of their bread & butter content providers. While that fact hasn’t changed much, the stakes have. When Netflix made the decision to close their Red Envelope Entertainment division, the Apple App Store had just launched and the iPad hadn’t even been announced yet. That landscape has completely changed, with premium network HBO having a really terrific app now that lets subscribers watch their shows on demand. The ability to watch Game of Thrones anytime, anywhere has surely helped HBO’s subscriber numbers and I think this is what Netflix must have it’s eye on.

The price of Netflix’s streaming service puts in the range with HBO and now Netflix has the killer content which will compel fans to sign up if they weren’t already subscribers. Thus they stand a chance to gain subscribers at the expense of premium cable providers like HBO, especially among the growing number of cable-cutters (you don’t need a cable subscription to watch Netflix shows; you do for HBO’s).

So, which is a better business to be in between hardware and content producer? I honestly don’t know, but given the nightmare of content licenses all these tech companies are having to navigate, I have a good feeling that producing premium content might be more as appealing as getting into the hardware game. Though the markets for iPads is essentially the same age as the market for streaming video apps on such devices, the playing field among studios looks a lot more leve than having to taken on a juggernaut like Apple’s iOS devices from scratch.

You’re move, Amazon.

  1. This is the company that is racing to dump physical media, for one thing!↵
  2. Note that, in the case of Amazon’s print publishing, they are consuming the entire business between author an reader. Now that is as much an end-to-end solution as one could have, short of providing advances to authors.↵

Getting iPhoto to recognize your updated iOS 5 device

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It’s almost embarrassing that I hadn’t tried transferring my photos off of my iPhone 4—running iOS 5— in nearly a month since upgrading. I suppose with the iCloud service, many users won’t ever have an issue with this. However, Angela and I share a iTunes account and don’t really care to have our photos doubled on one another’s computers. She doesn’t care about my goofy Instagram photos and don’t need to see the photos of some office baby shower. Therefore, we still back up our photos on our computers manually via iPhoto, or at least we’d planned to.

When we plugged our phones into our computers today, we realized that the iPhone device or camera roll weren’t showing up in iTunes. Even checking the Image Capture on the mac didn’t show the camera. After some hunting around, I finally found the solution. It’s not one I would have ever thought to do and it really strikes me as odd that Apple didn’t hammer this out already with all the other upgrades required for using iOS 5.

To get iPhoto to recognize your iOS 5 device, do the following:

  1. Eject your iPhone or iPad if it is connected.

  2. Using Finder and select the iPhoto Library file in the Pictures folder in your home directory.

  3. Right click and select Show Package Contents from the pop-up menu.

    The internal folder structure of the file is displayed.

    Tip: It may be helpful display items in a list, as there are quite a few files in the iPhoto Library.

  4. (Optional) Right click on the folder named iPod Photo Cache and select Compress “iPod Photo Cache” from the pop-up menu.

    This will give you a back up copy, in case something should go wrong. However, this is an automatically generated folder so you really shouldn’t lose anything.

  5. Right click on the folder named iPod Photo Cache and select Move to Trash.

  6. Reconnect your iPhone or iPad to your computer

    You should see the device appear in iPhoto, where you can import photos and videos as with previous version of iOS.

    If you happen to still have the contents of the iPhoto Library still showing in Finder, you’ll notice that the folder you just deleted gets generated using the new database structure used in iOS 5.

According to Royalwise Solutions, this issue stems from a change in the database used by iOS versions 2 through 4.3.3 is no longer used in iOS 5.0. Thanks to them for providing the details on how to fix this issue. Easy solution but not likely something most users are likely to figure out on their own (I know I couldn’t, anyway).

Space Dog

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I have read numerous times how Gene Roddenberry—the creator of Star Trek—preferred the eyes and mouth of an actor playing some alien not be obscured by makeup. The theory goes that this allows the actor to actually, well, act and the audience better empathize with the character. This makes good sense on a series like Star Trek, where the interaction with aliens is often less shoot ‘em up and more diplomacy and moral drama. However, I had never considered this point extending to dogs.

Netflix Splitting the Business

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I have to admit, I was a bit surprised to read Neflix splitting off their DVD mail business into a new company. Not surprised, though, to see that Netflix has essentially gone completely to streaming, as I mentioned that earlier this year. I’m pretty sure that’s been obvious for years now.

I was confused about the name Qwikster, though. Not that Reed Hastings reads my tweets, but was Mailflix (or DVDflix, Discflix, etc.) already taken? Why not go with the obvious and descriptive instead of a name that just implies something is going to be quick? Netflix mailings are fast—quick, even—but that name just seems like unnecessary nonsense1.

Despite all of the outrage over the price hikes and confusion (on the part of some, anyway; most likely just the press) over streaming services vs. discs, one has to appreciate Reed Hasting’s clarity of approach here. They are being very clear as to where they think the future lies. Of course, they must now navigate the figurative minefield of licensing to get content into streaming. No one (not even Apple or Amazon, by my observation) has done as good a job at this so far as Netflix. However, with the recent Starz announcement2, this does look like a massive mountain to climb. The success of Qwikster will depend less on licensing (who cares about the one-month period between DVD release and Netflix availability?) and more on adding value to the aging mail service.

One such value of additional interest, Qwikster will be adding game discs to their mail order service. Goodbye, Gamefly? We actually suspended our Gamefly account nearly three years ago. Great service, really, but we just never had the time to play the games. I’m not sure that we have loads more time now, but having the option to occasionally get games (for an additional fee, I suspect) on an existing account has more appeal than thawing out an account elsewhere.

Update: Great post by Dan Frommer with some great points to remember, particularly as to why avoiding DVD or Mail in the name Qwikster may have been a good idea for a possibly shifting business. (via Daring Fireball)

  1. Then again, their hastily put together page holder looks like nonsense. Who designed that table? M.C. Escher?↵
  2. Which apparently had everything to do with Starz seeing the business in terms of outdated cable model and Netflix preferring the simplicity of their business.↵

Early 3D Rendered Animation

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Great post, video, and comment discussion regarding Ed Catmull’s graduate research film which involves one of the earliest (if not the first) 3D rendered computer animation. Catmull would go on to form Pixar in the following decade. Many of the concepts and technologies used in this short film are used today in infrastructure to digitize roadways, buildings, bridges, etc. into point clouds. (via Kottke)

Windows Explorer in Windows 8

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I read this post on Improvements in the Windows Explorer earlier today with quite a bit of excitement. There’s a lot to learn in here about the thought process that goes behind the Ribbon UI which was developed at Microsoft and is finally reaching the Explorer window. I, personally, welcome the changes and think it is great that they are exposing so many power features but with the ability to make the interface as minimal as needed for someone who won’t use them. As someone who’s getting into more UX design, particularly when it comes to Ribbon UI applications, this sort of stuff is invaluable.

Gruber mentioned it in an aside piece, pointing out that Apple and Microsoft are really diverging in terms of UI design1. This is certainly true when comparing the (still in Alpha) Windows 8 Explorer window with the UI changes in OSX Lion. While it is fair to argue that Microsoft’s UI is busy, I think Apple has gone a bit too far in the other direction. My largest gripe is that all the color has been removed from most icons, making it a bit harder to differentiate one gray square from another. The ribbon can be minimized in any Ribbon UI program—resulting in what are functionally just graphical menus. There is a tool (oddly, with a gray gear icon) in the Finder which is “Perform tasks with the selected item(s)” which generally accomplishes the same task. Of course, it is just a menu and limited to practical menus sizes (no different than a right-click contextual menu at all).

Context menu in the OS X Lion Finder, or, as I like to call it: the puddle of gray blocks

The Windows 7 Explorer dialog is similarly simple, with a menu-ish toolbar providing some context-sensitive tools along the top. This interface looks a bit like Internet Explorer 8, but that is still different enough to most Windows programs that I think many users just never got used to the controls. In IE, the main purpose is browsing. Hiding settings, etc. aren’t needed most of the time and I’d wager many users don’t even know about them. However, I think anyone using a file manager is often looking to do more than just browse those files.

Windows 7 Explorer

The relatively stripped down Explorer interface in Windows 7

Windows 8—assuming that many of these features don’t get stripped out or watered down by some larger committee (as has happened to Windows releases in the past; thus Vista)—seems to try to cater to both casual users by way of the collapsable Ribbon and even the Metro UI (which will prevent many users from even seeing the Explorer window) as well as to power users who think that reducing the number of clicks to show hidden items from five down to two is awesome. Trying to have it both ways may very well not work, as is too often the case.

But, right or wrong, the Finder in OSX Lion is still going to be nearly as lousy after Windows 8 as it was when OS X first launched2. At least the Windows team is willing to listen to criticism and make some drastic changes.

  1. Fair to point out that Gruber didn’t mention any criticism of either, though if I had to place money on where his preferences lie, I’d go with Apple.↵
  2. There seem to be nearly as many Finder replacements for OS X as there are Explorer replacement/add-ons for Windows. However, the popularity of the $40 Path Finder really suggests how cumbersome Finder can be.↵