Re: experimental release of linuxdoc-tools (based on sgml-tools 1.0.9)

[Adam Di Carlo <adam@onshore.com>]

"Greg Ferguson" <gferg@hoop.timonium.sgi.com> writes:

> On May 17, 10:43am, Adam Di Carlo wrote:

> > Um, I don't think linuxdoc *has* a DTD or DSSSL files.
> 
> Right. I have seen a DTD, but no DSSSL.

Oh, my bad.  Of course it has a DTD.  Brain fart.

> > OTOH, SGMLtools Lite or whatever *could* support sgmltools v1 or
> > linuxdoc tools or whatever it is called.  Supposing that software is
> > already installed, all it would have to do is provide the capability
> > to wrap around the linuxdoc scripts with it's own 'sgmltools' wrapper.
> > If anyone wants to do this, apply as a developer at sourceforge.
> 
> I might be over-simplifying things, but I do not believe
> that will be necessary. I wouldn't want to see that, I think it
> adds too much complexity.

I don't think it would be very complex -- esp. when compared to the
complexity of invoking jade.

The question is what are you trying to accomplish:

  - have one front-end for popular free software SGML/XML authoring
    environments

  - eliminate the old pre-DSSSL linuxdoc styling because it's hard to
    maintain

If the former, my approach is the *easiest*. If the latter, your
approach is best.  In fact, one could do both...

> > I approve of one tool which is extensible -- it's name is sgmltools
> > lite, now a days.  I object to the idea of merging the linuxdoc
> > perl/ASP or whatever it is back into the sgmltools lite package.
> 
> We are in agreement.
> 
> I certainly do not want to have to merge the (old) scripts into the
> new package and I don't believe that would be necessary. I do not
> believe this v1 / v2 discrepency is necessary, it causes confusion;
> and beyond Taketoshi, there does not appear to be too many others
> still working on v1 (linuxdoc) support.
> 
> I believe we need to simply nail down a DTD and DSSSL package for
> linuxdoc...same model as what is done w/DocBook.

That's certainly doable.  DSSSL expertise seems rather hard to find,
though.

> Again, I might be over-simplifying this, and that is why I brought
> it up for discussion. The linuxdoc DTD is not too complex, so it
> may not take a huge effort to do this.
> 
> If we can:
> 
> 1) Produce a *maintained* package comprised of the linuxdoc DTD
>    and linuxdoc DSSSL stylesheets
> 
> 2) Fold that package into SGMLtools Lite (and/or SGMLtools v2)

BTW, I believe SGMLtools v2 is dead in favor of SGMLtools lite.

> 3) Make the existing wrapper scripts "DTD-aware" (if this is necessary),

> then I believe we'd be in great shape from a tools perspective wrt
> linuxdoc support.

Well, I would suggest that the best approach would be to see if you
can continue to refine the existing linuxdoc->docbook transformation
stylesheet which is currently in SGMLtools lite.  Then it might not be
too hard to have a two step process (which would be hidden to
authors):

  - convert linuxdoc document to docbook

  - style docbook document normally

-- 
.....Adam Di Carlo....adam@onShore.com.....<URL:http://www.onShore.com/>


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