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Ironmark is a platform, not an XML editor
Ironmark isn't a collection of standard-specific products. It's one platform with standards-specific capabilities where they make sense.
The XML editor is one tool in a technical publications program. Ironmark ships that tool, but it also ships everything else — because that's where the time actually goes.
What the lifecycle looks like
A working technical publications program moves content through the same loop, over and over:
- Author — write or edit structured content against a schema
- Review — peer review, QA, BREX validation, applicability checks
- Publish — assemble a PM, render PDF or IADS, sign off
- Deliver — hand off to the customer, controlled distribution
- Receive — customer feedback, DA-2028, redlines
- Track — program health, delivery pacing, quality debt
- Improve — next cycle
An XML editor covers the first stage. The other six either happen in separate tools or in email, spreadsheets, and shared drives.
What that costs when it's spread
Every stage that lives outside the authoring tool becomes a handoff. Handoffs need format conversion, permission alignment, notification plumbing, and a person who owns each transition. The cost isn't in any one handoff — it's in the sum, and in the drift that accumulates when the same content lives in four systems that don't quite agree.
Programs that touch only stage 1 heavily can run fine on an XML editor plus a couple of scripts. Programs where stages 2–7 add up to more work than stage 1 are the ones for whom one integrated platform earns its keep.
Design consequences
Building this as one platform instead of an editor with plug-ins forces specific choices:
- One project model. Documents, graphics, applicability filters, BREX rules, publish stylesheets, deliveries — one project row, one permission surface, one audit chain.
- Browser-native. No install per author. Everyone gets the same version, same tools, same UI conventions.
- Published pricing. Per-seat, on the site. No modular add-ons that shift the number after evaluation.
- Portal + feedback loop as first-class surfaces. Not "you can integrate one" — they ship with the product because they're part of the lifecycle.
- Deterministic behavior. No LLM-generated content, no probabilistic suggestions. Every author knows what the tool will do before it does it.
What this isn't
- A general-purpose XML tool. Ironmark focuses on defense technical publications standards (S1000D, MIL-STD-40051, MIL-PRF-63029, GEIA-STD-0007). If your program lives outside that scope, Ironmark won't be the best fit.
- A DITA-first product. DITA isn't in the current SDM set.
- A replacement for print-layout tools when the content is print-first. Ironmark publishes to PDF and IADS from structured source; if your source-of-truth is a page layout, that's a different tool category.
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