Re: I'm trying to set up docbook-tools...

[Eric Lee Green <eric@badtux.org>]

On Thu, 06 Jul 2000, David C. Mason wrote:
> Still, my problem is this thread has been about the lack of
> documentation for DocBook - but I still don't understand what the
> problem you are having is. I

The problem is not the lack of documentation. The problem is the lack of
attention to documenting DocBook as an actual document production system, rather
than as a theoretical exercise.  There is plenty of good theoretical
documentation, but a paucity of Get The Job Done tools and documentation.  This,
alas, has always been a problem of the SGML crowd. I've been following SGML off
and on since 1995 or so, when the original LinuxDoc project adopted that
LaTeX-like DTD, and aside from that project and one other that died aborning
(don't remember what it was, it was written using 'bigloo' Scheme and a DTD
that was similar to but simpler than DocBook), there has been absolutely no
attention at all amongst the SGML literati to the problems of producing
practical systems for ordinary users' purposes. And I'm talking as someone who
used to read Robin Cover's web page on a monthly basis looking for links that
would solve some actual problem that I had... it just never happened. 

-- 
Eric Lee Green      There is No Conspiracy
eric@badtux.org     http://www.badtux.org