Re: working SGML package (was: free vs. non-free debate)

[howard mann <howardm@xmission.com>]

Hugo.van.der.Kooij@caiw.nl wrote:

> To make it short:
>  - for Linuxdoc SGML you will need sgml-tools (v1)
>  - for DocBook SGML you need jade and stuff.
>         The SGMLtools (v2) are a frontend to this. The current package
>         does include the whole lot (if you take the big file).
> 
> I am doing some test to package the SGMLtools front end seperatly for now
> but I'm not quite sure it will work. So individual parts can be updated
> independently. However this may take more time. Another option I am
> investigating is testing how much scripting would be needed to use the
> packages from the Cygnus site to generate the output I am used to get from
> the CVS version of the SGMLtools.
> 
> As toolbuilder for a Dutch documentation project it is in my own interrest
> to get a workable, scaleable solution somehow. As non-programmer I am
> unable to pickup the project myself. But sharing knowledge may result in a
> toolset that is both flexible and easy to use for authors.
> 
> If anything workable arises I 'll let you know.
> 
> I would advise the LDP to form a team to organize the knowledge about
> current tools and mirror them to the LDP site and document their use. So
> future writers may find a helping doc to get them writing.


I offer a few additional comments :

1.SGML tools ( V2 ) has a script for conversion of Linuxdoc documents to
DocBook.
Examples of the conversion process are here:
http://www.sgmltools.org/HOWTO/

( I have not tried this on my own HOWTO indicated in my signature as
version 2 requires Python 1.5 which I do not have on my Red Hat 5.0
system. Installation of 1.5 broke other apps that depended on version
1.4, much to my dismay. If anyone with version 2.x would convert my
HOWTO's .sgml source and send me the resultant .sgml file, I would
_really_ appreciate it. The process is simple and is described on that
page. I am presently "converting" my HOWTO to DocBook with the Docbook
tools from Cygnus. I would like to compare the two versions)

2. I have not followed the discussion about conversion of HOWTO's to
DocBook, but am interested in this issue. Excellent guides are available
that authors may use, including :
http://www.freebsd.org/tutorials/docproj-primer/index.html , by Nik
Clayton for FreeBSD. He has produced a FreeBSD extension to the DocBook
DTD, the details of which I do not know. He states :

" Note: There is nothing about these extensions that is FreeBSD
specific, it was just felt that they were useful enhancements for this
particular project. Should anyone from any of the other *nix camps
(NetBSD, OpenBSD, Linux, ...) be interested in collaborating on a
standard DocBook extension set, please get in touch with Nik Clayton
<nik@FreeBSD.org>. "

Thus, we could customize the DocBook DTD and stylesheets to produce
documents for the LDP that have a standard, appealing Title Page, format
etc. We should consider collaborating with Nik Clayton.

Similarly, Stephane Bortzmeyer has a documentation page for Debian that
is very instructive :  http://www.debian.org/~bortz/SGML-HOWTO/

Is there presently interest in the issue of migration to the DocBook DTD
?

Cheers,


Howard Mann
http://www.newbielinux.com
Online Troubleshooting Resources:HOWTO
(http://www.xmission.com/~howardm/tronline.html)


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