Crane Softwrights Ltd. is a consultancy delivering Computer Systems Analysis and training services worldwide since April 1997. We focus primarily in structured text processing related to the Web-based Extensible Markup Language (W3C XML) family of Recommendations and the international Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML - ISO 8879:1986) family of Standards. We specialize in the structuring of and processing of information, in particular training and deploying the use of the W3C XSL/XSL-FO, XSLT, XPath and XQuery set of Recommendations and OASIS Universal Business Language (UBL) artefacts and systems for electronic commerce and transportation.
1. Announcements
New training video product release:
At the 2008 Balisage Conference Crane announced its new Video Training Series. The first title in the series is Practical Transformation Using XSLT and XPath Video, published 2008-08-08, and now available in DVD-ROM format for personal use or licensed for online real-time private delivery on an Intranet:
Upcoming publicly-attended training courses:
Berkeley/Walnut Creek, California - July/August, 2009
Discount applies for multiple students or for attending both classes.
- Based on the success of the training in Santa Ana in early June, one of the attendees at those classes is now convening his own Crane training event in the East-Bay area of Central California for his fellow Masters graduates and students.
- At this early stage the dates have not yet been selected and will be determined based on the feedback from a survey soliciting interest.
- The cost is expected to be approximately US$500-US$550 per day (the lesser price for early registration and multiple seats).
- These are the most in-depth configurations of Crane's XSL and XQuery training classes, covering the use of every element, every attribute, every keyword and every function of both XSLT/XPath 1.0 and 2.0 and XQuery 1.0, and every formatting object of XSL-FO 1.0 and 1.1 with more detail and more exercises than other available configurations of our material.
- syllabus: XSLT/XQuery/XPath 1.0 & 2.0 Hands-on Training - 5 days
- syllabus: XSL-FO 1.0 & 1.1 Hands-on Training - 3 days
- instructor: G. Ken Holman
- survey of interest in attendance and dates: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=7DK2sxNiXHTSQQXvtJZtcw_3d_3d
If you are interested in having us travel to your area of the world to teach publicly-subscribed courses for organizations in your geographical area, we would be pleased to discuss the opportunity with you. We have detailed our requirements and if a delivery is feasible we will post an announcement for a candidate course to establish the amount of local interest. We have had the privilege to have taught in many cities around the world.
Latest editions of the code list and UBL books now available!
We are pleased to announce the availability of the latest editions of our code list and UBL books, now including details on specifying customizations of UBL.
The email announcements have been sent, but there have been many problems with archaic email addresses and email forwarding. If you have not yet received your copy of the update username and password, please contact us at info@CraneSoftwrights.com with a copy of the purchase receipt or some clues as to when you purchased your copy. We'll send you the update information at our earliest convenience.
You can check our list of worldwide staff licenses to see if your company has already purchased a corporate license and where to obtain more information.
International business: Crane Softwrights Ltd. is pleased to announce that Document Engineering Services has become a partner for Crane's services outside of North America. With its international presence this dynamic new organization, created to service and satisfy a broad spectrum of electronic document exchange requirements, provides a natural synergy with Crane.
U.S. Government employees: - free access to your prepaid XSL book licenses
2. Services we provide
- Transform writing
- you need it; we write it!
- Transform mentoring
- you write it; we review and comment on it!
- Training delivery
- we teach it; you learn it!
- Training licensing
- we write it; you teach it!
- Book and training video sales
- we write it; you learn it!
- XML consulting
- you need help; we are here to help you!
3. Recommended reading
Who would have thought the interlinked web of information we use today, and the problems and shortcomings of how we are obliged to use it today by those who publish the information we need, was prophetically described in July 1945 by Vannevar Bush in the article titled As We May Think? This is a very interesting article, not only for its prophecy, but for its recommendations. To paraphrase the editor's assessment of Dr. Bush's conclusion of the article: "The perfection of instruments that give access to and command over the inherited knowledge of the ages should be the first objective of our scientists."
For the lighter side of SGML and XML, Joe English's NOT the comp.text.sgml FAQ is a fun read, and I think that Sean McGrath is absolutely brilliant with his DeXiderata and Lord of the Schemas: Part 1 as the funniest collections of observations regarding the XML community and technology.
The following are articles/papers that have been published by Crane:
- Global large-scale stylesheet deployment case study
- Simple Worldwide Aggregation Using XSLT
- XSL-FO in the Real World
- What is XSL-FO? - 2002-03-20 XML.com
- Experiments using XSLT with Topic Maps - 2000-12 XML'2000
- What is XSLT? - 2000-08-16 XML.com
- Vive la différence! (proposed for XML.com)
- What's the Big Deal With XSL? - 1999-04-22 XML.com
Ken has also contributed (though only in a small part so far) to the collection of SGML/XML songs.
Here is some important Awareness of Male Cancers information.
SOFTWRIGHTS
LTD.
BOX 266,
KARS, ONTARIO
CANADA K0A-2E0
+1 (613) 489-0999 (Voice)
+1 (613) 489-0995 (Fax)
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