From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Norman Walsh To: docbook-tools-discuss@sourceware.cygnus.com Subject: Re: docbook-tools-discuss: Re: I'm trying to set up docbook-tools... Date: Wed, 27 Dec 2000 06:36:00 -0000 Message-id: <87puoqniw7.fsf@nwalsh.com> References: <200007041511.LAA15779@snark.thyrsus.com> <00070410352500.07357@ehome.inhouse> <873dlnjklb.fsf@nwalsh.com> <20000706095446.A13085@kstarr.celestial.com> X-SW-Source: 2000/msg00252.html / Bill Campbell was heard to say: | I would have liked to see some more discussion of some topics like how to | build indexes (indices?), cross-referencing, etc. -- i.e. the things one Yes, there definitely needs to be more about indexing. I also need to get an XSL solution for indexing, but that's a different problem. | has to consider when writing books, documentation, and that sort of thing. | The examples on the CD, and the sgml input for the book have been the most | useful things for me. That's why they're there. | Another thing I would really like to see are more tools that convert | existing input from ?roff, TeX, and similar markup languages into DocBook | SGML, because this would make it much easier for those of us who are fluent A little more discussion about how to convert from procedural markup to structural markup is probably in order, but tools to do this are very, very hard to write. This is the problem I call "dragging markup up hill". Look at the troff source for an (old) O'Reilly book (I have :-), and you'll find that the same troff markup for "italic" is used for all the things that are italic in print. (Quelle surprise). But if you want to mark those things up semantically, you have to distinguish between at least three or four different kinds of italic things which is nearly impossible to do accurately. | References are invaluable, but they're not usually something that is used | to initially learn a language. I've always learned best by seeing concrete Yep, "Learning DocBook" would be a worthy project. Be seeing you, norm -- Norman Walsh | The firmest line that can be drawn upon http://nwalsh.com/ | the smoothest paper is still jagged | edges if seen through a microscope. | This does not matter until important | deductions are made on the supposition | that there are no jagged edges.--Samuel | Butler (II)