From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Eric Lee Green To: "David C. Mason" , esr@thyrsus.com Cc: docbook-tools-discuss@sourceware.cygnus.com Subject: Re: I'm trying to set up docbook-tools... Date: Wed, 27 Dec 2000 06:36:00 -0000 Message-id: <00070614422402.15291@ehome.inhouse> References: <200007041511.LAA15779@snark.thyrsus.com> <20000706150802.A26225@thyrsus.com> X-SW-Source: 2000/msg00234.html 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 From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Eric Lee Green To: "David C. Mason" , esr@thyrsus.com Cc: docbook-tools-discuss@sourceware.cygnus.com Subject: Re: I'm trying to set up docbook-tools... Date: Thu, 06 Jul 2000 14:32:00 -0000 Message-ID: <00070614422402.15291@ehome.inhouse> References: <200007041511.LAA15779@snark.thyrsus.com> <20000706150802.A26225@thyrsus.com> X-SW-Source: 2000-q3/msg00032.html Message-ID: <20000706143200.UkOLt0oBQTOI6qhtcixJVaW8Opt7qOPHRigY_RA0BQY@z> 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