CALS and portables
| Published date | 01 April 1990 |
| Pages | 279-281 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/eb044992 |
| Date | 01 April 1990 |
| Author | Jim Roberts |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Library & information science |
Pc Corner
CALS and portables
Jim Roberts
The basic theme of this issue's column is electronic docu-
ments and portable computers. I was surprised myself to dis-
cover that these subjects are related. On the subject of
portable computers, I see the market separating out into four
distinct layers. These are the big 386 machines that only run
on mains power and could even serve as a desktop machine,
the 286 portables that weigh anything from 7 to 15 lb., the
lightweight 8086 machines and the new 'palmtop' computers.
In this issue I look at the last category, reviewing the Atari
Portfolio. For anyone interested in portables, there is
a
review
of 73 of them in PC
Magazine,
9, 5,13 March 1990.
I am writing this over the Easter holiday because it is the
only time I have managed to have free these last two months.
I have had no suitable questions for this column, but plenty of
problems. These were mostly related
to
our department mov-
ing offices. Our 'heavy gang' are not permitted to move com-
puters or terminals and if you saw the big dent in the top of one
of my filing cabinets, you will understand why.
The first problem we faced was in trying to find the refer-
ence diskettes for the IBM PS/2s so that we could park the
hard
disks.
The reference book and associated diskette always
seems to be the first thing that disappears. In spite of our at-
tempts at standardisation, we have a range of computers, all
needing different reference diskettes. I finally made up a set
covering the full range of machines. Only one computer re-
fused to work after the move. This complained of not having
a hard disk. This had the owner worried for a short while
because of course he had not backed up his data. Fortunately
the hard disk had been parked and the problem turned out to
be a loose hard disk controller
card.
Hopefully I have another
convert to the merits of backing up data.
The move did serve one useful purpose in that several
people discovered that they had two or more sets of software
documentation.
We
always install all our standard software on
the new machines as they come in. We then distribute a com-
plete working system along with all the documentation. Some
people when they upgrade, pass on their old hardware, but
forget to pass on their documentation with
it.
We
have another
problem with software documentation in that it sometimes
gets stolen. That is another of the side effects of software
piracy. Anyone who happily uses pirated software
is
probably
not averse to stealing the documentation to go with it.
My main work these last two months has been on elec-
tronic documents.
I
spent a very interesting week with IBM at
Warwick in the UK. Unfortunately I cannot report on every-
thing
I
learned
there.
One thing
is
clear
though,
and that
is
that
IBM is taking CALS (Computer-assisted Acquisition and
Logistics System) compliance very
seriously.
CALS
is a
USA
DoD (Department of Defence) initiative which requires do-
cumentation for new projects to be submitted in a specific
electronic format. This format is based on certain interna-
tional standards. IBM,
as
both a
large
defence contractor in its
own right, and as a purveyor of computer hardware and soft-
ware, is moving very fast to support this initiative.
It helps to realise that CALS compliance imposes a set of
standards rather than products. This means that certain com-
panies are adapting their existing products to be compatible
with the CALS standards. Interleaf
is
a case in point. I under-
stand that the new release 5 of Interleaf will be CALS com-
pliant. IBM has adopted a slightly different strategy. Because
of their major investment (and that of their customers) in
existing IBM standards and products, IBM has announced
new products that will use the existing infrastructure wher-
ever possible, while adding the necessary CALS tools. In the
process, they added another computer
term.
This term
is
quasi
Wysiwyg (what you see is what you get), which, roughly
translated, means that the wordprocessor
gives
you an indica-
tion that different elements in the document will be presented
in different ways, but without any indication of what it will
actually look like on paper.
CALS is based on SGML (Standardised General Mark-up
Language). As such, it tags elements of the document such as
'title'
'chapter header' 'citation' 'index entry'
etc.
What these
elements may be, which elements are compulsory, which are
optional and which are related to other elements either se-
quentially or hierarchically is defined by the DTD (Document
Type Definitions). Different document
types
may have differ-
ent DTDs. The CALS DTD is just a particular example. The
same basic tools may be used in any electronic document
environment that is SGML based.
What the SGML standard does not do is tell you how these
elements are to be presented in the final document on paper.
This task
is
the function of the formatter used
by
the publisher.
Different publishers will have different ideas as to how a
chapter header should be printed; in what font, left justified or
centred, etc. Mostly this should not matter, but the wrong
choice of type size could affect
the page
content,
i.e.
where the
page breaks occur. A new standard to solve this is in prepara-
tion. It should provide
in a
general way the presentation stand-
ard required by the document. This standard is still about two
years away.
By the time the formatting interchange standard is avail-
able,
CALS should already be starting on to the second phase
which is to do away with paper documents altogether. The
longer term aim is to integrate the documents with the under-
lying data where applicable and have the document automat-
ically update when the data, drawings etc. are updated. This
might seem a long way in the future, but the potential is al-
ready here. Most of the tools are already in place. If you are
happy with text-only mode on your
PC,
rather than Wysiwyg
graphics mode displaying multiple fonts and sizes, we can
The Electronic Library, Vol. 8, No. 3, August 1990 279
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