Gregory Leblanc (gleblanc@cu-portland.edu)
Wed, 12 Jan 2000 11:41:59 -0800
Kim Lester wrote:
>
> DTDs (Document Type Definitions)
> ----
>
> SGML is a language for defining document content.
> A DTD is a specific sets of tag definitions.
> DTD customises SGML/XML by providing a specific set of
> tags/rules for a specific purpose (eg indexing, author,
> subject, date, id, etc).
>
> DTD may cover any topic not just publishing, eg there
> is a chemical database DTD. DTDs are general as any
> potential database requirement.
>
> A couple of technical documentation specific DTDs:
>
> Linuxdoc - I believe this has been deprecated in favour
> of the more sophisticated and more general
> DocBook ???? ( See LDP)
Not totally depreciated yet, but the LDP is working on it. There are a
number of issues that we're going to try to clear up by moving to
DocBook, but they're not really appropraite for this list.
>
> DocBook - Developed by OASIS (and SGML group for open doc
> and data exchange)
> Designed for computer/software documentation
> DocBook is apparently used by many large companies
> OASIS is generally moving from SGML to XML.
>
> DocBook Intro:
> http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/
You should also take a good look at http://www.docbook.org/ which houses
Norm Walsh's book on DocBook, and deals with many of the issues that
we'll face.
> SGML Editors
> ------------
>
> I am not aware of any (free) GUI SGML savvy editors.
> There is an editor supporting SGMLtools (klyx or LyX ?)
> Apparently EMACS has a smart SGML mode package (PSGML)
> (Emacs has everything, but do you have enough fingers
> to invoke the commands: Esc-Meta-Alt-Ctrl-Shift-Tab... :-) )
Actually, I've gotten emacs and psgml working, and it offers the
features that I'm looking for. I write my documents in terms of
structure, so it's convient for me to think in terms of tags and
things. It does require thinking differently than from the way that
people tend to think with word processors.
>
> SGML Tools
> ----------
>
> This toolset understands a subset (how much ??) of SGML.
> I _think_ Version 2.x can output in the following formats:
>
> TeX,
> HTML
> XML flow object tree [whatever that is...]
> Framemaker MIF
> RTF
> DVI (?) [can get there via TeX anyway]
> Postscript (?) [can get there via TeX anyway]
> plain text (?)
> PDF (?)
>
> also script to help convert from LinuxDoc to DocBook
>
> Version 1.0 (linuxDoc source format only) can output to at least
> the following. I'm not sure how version 2.0 stands:
Version 1.0 is (supposedly) defunct. Since they only handle LinuxDoc
documents, I don't think we need to worry about them much.
> Notes:
> * The project has been suspended due to lack of time.
> (Anyone want to start it up again?)
I'd love to see a maintainer take over this project, but I am
ill-equiped to code or lead a project of this size.
> * SGMLtools was originally called Linuxdoc-SGML (from LDP)
> (It was changed because it isn't linux specific)
> * SGMLtools moved away from the Linuxdoc-DTD and
> now embraces the DocBook-DTD "technical doc standard"
> SGMLtools version 1.x is LinxDoc-DTD
> SGMLtools version 2.x is DocBook-DTD (ALPHA release)
>
> * I believe that LDP is moving to DocBook-DTD standard too ??
>
> It occurs to me that SGML isn't currently a viewable source
> format either (files would probably have to be converted
> to HTML on the fly etc). In this regard it is no better than
> texInfo. So I shouldn't put tekInfo down on that point.
> (XML may improve matters !?)
This is true, but SGML and XML are very good backends. I think that the
move from SGML to XML would be rather painless if things were written in
SGML with the idea of moving to XML at some point.
>
> Pros
> ----
> Powerful standard
> Flexible
> High quality technical document format already defined
> and in use (DocBook DTD)
> Ability to define sophisticated indexing/structure tags
> Range of output formats supported
>
> Cons
> ----
> Potentially too verbose to hand code large documents.
I don't understand this comment. I'm working on a document much larger
than any of the LDP's guides using DocBook right now. While I plan to
take a couple of months for the translation from plain text to DocBook,
I don't see this as a problem (and I'll be hand coding everything).
> Not many editing tools currently available
This is true enough, but changing.
> (Giving way to XML for web related content)
I suspect that it will give way to XML for most content as soon as
better/more tools and browsers are available.
Greg
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