What is a "kadov" anyway?

[gregsedwards]

I know that RoboHelp makes heavy use of "kadov" tags, presumably to denote customized content that has some special meaning to the application, but I've always been curious where the term "kadov" comes from. Is it the name of one of RoboHelp's developers, an early code name for the product, or perhaps just a nonsense word like "foo." I've secretly suspected that it's Russian for "messy, non W3C-compliant markup code," but that's just a theory.

I recently saw t-shirts for sale on MadCap's website that read "<die>kadov tags</die>. I may just have to treat myself to one. Happy Friday!

- Greg

[RoboColum_n_]

Hi Greg. My understanding was that when RH was first being developed there was no standard HTML although the use of kadov tags was seen as the way forward and even being touted as a future standard. Unfortuantely for Blue Sky, or whoever owned RH at the time, they coded using them and the rest is history. I'm willing to be proved wrong by any other more "established" users out there though.

[Captiv8r]

Hi Greg

I'm not sure if it has any correlation to this, but kadov is an anagram of "vodka". And indeed, in some of my trawling through code in JavaScript and WebHelp files, at one point I did discover a small blurb that said "kadov not vodka".

As I understand it, kadov tags are used primarily to assist with rendering inside the WYSIWYG editor. They are non-standard markup. But they were created at a time when standards did not yet exist. So, while intentional, they weren't introduced in any effort to be non-conformist.

The odd part to me is that you have all the former RoboHelp developers that banded together to form Madcap, and now they are all saying how "sucky" RoboHelp (the very product they worked so hard on for so many years) is. Same goes for their kadov tag tee shirts.

I think everyone will cheer when RoboHelp emerges in a shiny and new "kadov free" environment. Hmmm, perhaps Adobe could put a twist on things. Perhaps showing Adobe as "Arthur" pulling the kadov sword out of the RoboHelp stone where others failed.

Cheers... Rick

[Peter Grainge]

Standards had not been set and the developers came up with kadov tags. It is an anagram of Vodka.

I find it priceless that it is MadCap coming up with the Die Kadov T shirts given they are the guys who created them when they worked for Blue Sky.

[Guest]

I think you guys aren't using your imaginations. I find it easy to believe that the Blue Sky developers tried to get rid of kadov tags after W3C standards came out. The marketing department said it couldn't be sold as a new feature, the suits agreed, and the work wasn't authorized. That would leave the original creators of the kadov tags hating them even more than the users did.

Okay, so maybe I can imagine this because of the number of times it happened to me...and it really does leave you hating the stuff you were not allowed to clean up.

Elisa

[Peter Grainge]

I didn't say they couldn't be removed and I think Rick's comments could be interpreted as Blue Sky failed to do so as a company, not that the developers could not do it.

I just wish MadCap would focus on the merits of their product rather than having to bash RoboHelp features. Is that so difficult?

[Guest]

No argument there, Peter. Civil discourse in advertising - it wasn't always an oxymoron!

And I did have my "personal" glasses on - the slogan isn't a programmer's cri du coeur, it's a statement by a company. I stand corrected.

Elisa