36.6 Comparing runfm with the DCL command-line filter

With runfm you can do any of the following:

• Start FrameMaker from the command line, and have Mif2Go (or some other FrameMaker plug-in) invoked automatically.

• With FrameMaker already open and a book or document selected, run a Mif2Go conversion from the command line.

• Run multiple conversions, with a series of runfm commands in a Windows .bat file.

• Optionally close FrameMaker (or the book or document or both) automatically when all conversions are complete.

Advantages of runfm

The advantage of runfm over the DCL command-line filter is availability of all the Mif2Go options that are excluded from DCL command-line operation, including book conversion, template import, and postprocessing steps; in other words, if you want to do any of the following:

• convert a FrameMaker book

• generate bitmap graphics

• automatically import formats from FrameMaker templates

• automatically create and delete .mif files

• automatically create configuration files

• automatically create Help-system project files.

See §37.1 How the DCL filter works.

Advantages of DCL

However, with DCL you do not need FrameMaker at all (just the MIF files to be converted), and you can use a Windows .bat file to execute system commands before and after conversion. Also, DCL is faster, if all you are doing is including documentation as part of a build process, after writers are satisfied with the results of interactive conversions. See §37 Converting via DCL.

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