Where can I learn about FOSI?

Answered by Lynn Hales and Suzanne Napoleon Last Updated: 2006-08-23

=In 2006, Lynn Hales wrote=

Beyond the online help in Epic, there are really only two other places where you can really find information on the FOSI.

The first and somewhat limited source is MIL-HDBK-28001, and the other is Appendix B of MIL-PRF-28001C (yes they are related to a point).

Arbortext has taken the text of MIL-M-28001B Amendment 1 (DOD changed the middle lettering scheme for specifications in 1994 and I won't go into the gory details but M-28001 and PRF-28001 are one and the same) and annotated it with what portions of the Output Specification (OS, the FOSI's parent DTD) they do and do not support. You can find this in the tutorials folder under the 28001 (do we see a trend here???) folder. The file is an SGML file but is compiled with a distributed Epic DOCTYPE so it will open right up.

Beyond that, Adepters has answered a lot of questions on the FOSI over the years, but most of it fairly specific.

=In 2008, Suzanne Napoleon wrote=

My book on FOSI is still in process. In the meantime, my FOSI tutorials for screen and print are on sale at http://fosiexpert.com/tutorials.html.

I know from my experience and the experience of others that learning FOSI by trial and error is time-consuming and problematic, which is why I developed PTC/Arbortext's FOSI Stylesheet Design Workshops about 10 years ago. This year I developed new FOSI tutorials, which I believe are a considerable improvement on my earlier efforts because the new tutorials require much less hands-on coding and cover much more material, all at a fraction of the price of the PTC/Arbortext workshops.

My new FOSI tutorials are designed to get you started with FOSI and then serve as a continuing resource. They:


 * introduce everything FOSI can do for screen and print output
 * explore in depth those topics that require more than just an introduction
 * teach the style panels FOSI interface and the tagged FOSI interface, and how to use each to best advantage
 * contain tons of tips and tricks and insider info from my 16 years of experience working with FOSI and Arbortext Editor
 * provide a library of working FOSI code

Each tutorial has an XML file with a starter FOSI. Most starter FOSIs are partially or completely coded. When different from the starter FOSI, a completed FOSI is included. PDF of the formatted output is provided for Part 2 tutorials.