Re: DocBook or sgmltool problems

[Jorge Godoy <godoy@conectiva.com.br>]

"der.hans" <ldp-discuss@LuftHans.com> writes:

> On Wed, 3 May 2000, Bruce Richardson wrote:
> 
> > The thing that worries me that the whole point of writing in sgml is that I
> > only have to worry about the content, but here I am ferreting around trying
> > to getting quotes and tildes displayed.  I may fix it on my system but
> > what about all the other machines out there with the same default set-up
> > that I had?  What's the point of me fixing it to show these entities
> > correctly if it's going to come out gibberish on other people's machines? 

We're working hard to make things available for installations out of
the box. With LDP's files it's our intention that you'll convert them
to all available output formats without any problem. 

> Most people should be getting the "compiled" docs, e.g. html, pdf, txt, so
> shouldn't have to worry about the conversions. OTOH, we want to make sure
> they can easily convert things. I threw everything into a makefile. I've
> seen much better ones on here. There were also a couple of shell scripts,
> I think. We should make a docbookcompile (or docbookconvert or
> whatever) script that takes care of calling the various conversion
> programs with the proper flags. Same for LinuxDoc.

We already have it. It was made by Greg Ferguson and it's used at our
conversion procedure there at LDP. IIRC it works with LinuxDoc and
DocBook source files.

> There are different convertion utils that have been mentioned,
> e.g. xpdf and ghostscript. The util should prefer one, but be able to work
> with whichever ones provide acceptable conversion.

This is hard. The script should require one and work with it. While
talking about DocBook, Jade and OpenJade options are compatible but I
can't say the same about other tools that are available. 

LDP should provide means for one to use some predefined tools. If the
user wants to use other tools, we can't support him and he will have
to go on his own.

> The LDP *is* lacking on tools for those who don't want to work at the
> molecular level :), but there are things out there. We need to coordinate
> better :).

I agree... And it's my fault that things are going too slowly... :-(
I'm completely stuck on my work (15-16 hours a day...) and I'm not
being able to help with what I volunteered. Fortunately my work is
also with DocBook and SGML here, so I can use it with LDP too. I'm
just being slow... I'm not stopped.

Sorry everybody... And, I have all messages on improving and
correcting the DocBook documentation. They'll be used when I make
changes to the DocBook howto.

One of these messages said that I was supposing that authors already
knew SGML and some DocBook basics... I was thinking on this lately and
I think he's correct. I'm worried with the HOWTO size. We shouldn't
require authors to read a "guide" if a HOWTO would be enough and I
think I'll keep the HOWTO the way it is but I'll provide auxiliary
documentation too. 

Again, I'm sorry for my lack of time.
-- 
Godoy.	<godoy@conectiva.com> 

Departamento de Publicações
Publishing Department                   Conectiva S.A.


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