Most of the time computer documentation is an afterthought, if it's even a thought at all. Documentation groups tend to be the last ones funded, even though no product ships without it (somewhere).
In fact, more documentation shows up all the time, and not just from the company shipping the product. User communities create tutorials and fan pages and trade information about installing, using, and extending products all the time (blogs, books, articles, wikis, and more).
Official Pages for Major Document Types
Documentation Architectures (Doctypes)
- Docbook
- One of the first documentation types. Because of its maturity, docbook has lots of tools available to speed processing, facilitate content searching, and automate publicaiton.
- DITA
- IBM's Darwin Information Type Architecture. DITA is receiving a lot of attention in technical publications circles.
- S1000D
- S1000D addresses products that are air, sea, or land. S1000D is the first document specification that also defines the behavior that a content management system must have in order to declare itself compliant. It also has a sample document (technical documentation for a bicycle) that you can change and give to vendors to prove or disprove their compliance.
Learn About the Doctypes
- Docbook Lens
- Links to web resources and books
- S1000D Specification, Issue 3.0
- Issue 3.0 is now available. (Issue 2.2 was 2300 pages long.)
- S1000D or DITA
- Although this article starts by discussing an conference in June of 2006, it compares S1000D and DITA very nicely.
Relevant books at Amazon.com
Single Sourcing: Building Modular Documentation
Amazon Price: $43.00 (as of 01/08/2009) 
Developing SGML DTDs: From Text to Model to Markup
Amazon Price: (as of 01/08/2009)
Managing Enterprise Content: A Unified Content Strategy (VOICES)
Amazon Price: $32.84 (as of 01/08/2009)
XML: A Manager's Guide (2nd Edition) (Addison-Wesley Information Technology Series)
Amazon Price: (as of 01/08/2009)
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- All About Single-Sourcing
- Single sourcing is the hot topic in the computer documentation and technical writing industry.
- Applying IT to Process
- Once you've done single-sourcing, you've opened the door to serious process innovation opportunities.
