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Re: Kudos and question



"Greg Ferguson" <gferg@hoop.timonium.sgi.com> wrote:
> On Mar 23,  8:08am, Pal Domokos wrote:
> > Subject: Kudos and question
> >
> >
> > I have a few questions about the current state of the DocBook-ization
> > of linuxdoc. Perhaps it would be beneficial to all authors if somebody
> > clarified these issues.
> >
> > So: all existing HOWTOs had been converted to DocBook, as we all know.
> > Furthermore, HOWTOs are now accepted in DocBook format also.
> > My question is: what if I decide to migrate to DocBook and send all
> > future updates of my HOWTO in this format? How will the LinuxDoc
> > version of the HOWTO get updated? Or is the DocBook format the
> > "official" source now and are all other, non-SGML variants
> > produced from this source? In this case, we probably don't need
> > the files in LinuxDoc format any more.
> 
> I can speak to this in some detail. In the processing environment
> currently established on our host machine [metalab], which has
> (hopefully!) improved turn-around time of publishing updates, we
> can transparently handle DocBook and/or linuxdoc SGML documents.
> 
> Part of the processing done on a linuxdoc-encoded document is
> to convert to DocBook, using ld2db (I'm going to put the links
> to the packages used on metalab at the end of this msg; I've
> been meaning to do that).
> 
> All native or derived DocBook instances can be accessed
> from (full HOWTOs) :
> 
>   http://metalab.unc.edu/pub/Linux/docs/HOWTO/other-formats/docbook
> 
> and for mini-HOWTOs:
> 
>   http://metalab.unc.edu/pub/Linux/docs/HOWTO/mini/other-formats/docbook
> 
> If a document is given to us in linuxdoc, that is considered to
> be the "official" format. The DocBook SGML derived from the
> linuxdoc instance is usable, but can certainly benefit from
> an editing pass by the author.  For that reason, it is not
> considered to be the official version UNTIL the author dictates
> that to us. An author can certainly use that derived version as a
> starting point for their move to DocBook, if they so choose.
> 
> Once an author submits to us a DocBook instance of their document,
> and indicates that the DocBook instance is considered to be the
> official instance,  we will either remove (or archive) the linuxdoc
> version from the LDP host machine (metalab).
> 
> Does that sound like a reasonable approach?
> 

It certainly does.

> We have a few DocBook-only HOWTOs currently in place, most
> of which were pulled from the OSWG CVS archive (with the author's
> permission): Cable-Modem, RPM, DHCP; to name a few.
> 
> > Miscellaneous: about a month ago somebody sent a guide, called RUTE,
> > to this list, as a donation to linuxdoc. Has anybody answered the
> > post?
> 
> I'll take care of that. It looks to be available only in PostScript,
> tex, and PDF.
> 
> ----
> 
> In case anyone is interested, here are the tools being used for
> processing on metalab:
> 
>   =======================
>   For support of linuxdoc:
>   =======================
> 
> sgml-tools 1.0.9 -
>   ftp://ftp.us.sgmltools.org/pub/SGMLtools/v1.0/sgml-tools-1.0.9.tar.gz
> 
> htmldoc (1.8.4) -
>   ftp://ftp.easysw.com/pub/htmldoc/1.8.4/htmldoc-1.8.4-source.zip
> 
> fltk 1.0.7 (required by htmldoc for their GUI; I built it anyway) -
>   ftp://ftp.fltk.org/pub/fltk/1.0.7/fltk-1.0.7-source.zip
> 
> ld2db -
>   http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/users/rrt1001/ld2db.zip
> 
>   ======================
>   For support of DocBook:
>   ======================
> 
> Jade (1.2.1) -
>    ftp://ftp.jclark.com/pub/jade/jade-1.2.1.tar.gz
> 
> DSSSL (1.52) -
>    http://nwalsh.com/docbook/dsssl/db152.zip
> 

let me note that the documentation for DSSSL is here:
   http://nwalsh.com/docbook/dsssl/db152d.zip

> DocBook DTD (3.1) -
>    http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/sgml/3.1/docbk31.zip
> 

The DocBook HOWTOs on linuxdoc are of the type
<!DOCTYPE Article PUBLIC "-//Davenport//DTD DocBook V3.0//EN">,
while the DocBook DTD is 3.1, with the following line in the
docbook.cat file:
PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook V3.1//EN" "docbook.dtd".
Is this OK?

> Entities -
>    ftp://ftp.ornl.gov/pub/sgml/WG8/DOCS/
> 

What are these? What are they needed for? They don't seem to be
entities to me.

> 
> best regards,
> 
> 
> -- 
> Greg Ferguson     - s/w engr / mtlhd         | gferg@sgi.com
> SGI Tech Pubs     - http://techpubs.sgi.com  | 
> Linux Doc Project - http://www.linuxdoc.org  |

Gregory Leblanc <GLeblanc@cu-portland.edu> wrote:
> As soon as an author feels ready, and writes their own HOWTO in DocBook,
the
> LinuxDoc version will be removed, the the DocBook version becomes the
> official source, and all other outputs are generated from that.  I just
want
> to make a couple of points for people who are moving to DocBook.  First,
> while we've run the LinuxDoc HOWTOs through a script to convert them to
> DocBook, DocBook has FAR more features for technical writers than LinuxDoc
> did.  The DocBook "output" of your HOWTO may be a good starting point, or
> you may wish to start from scratch.  I believe that to take advantage of
> some of the features of DocBook, you'll probably need MORE markup in your
> document, but it will allow things like much better searching, and better
> integration into online help tools, like the new GNOME Help browser (which
> is still a few months off).  I'm eager for DocBook 5.0 (towards the end of
> this year), and Mozilla, because they will allow the use of XML.  This will
> allow people to use the native DocBook version of HOWTOs, with all of their
> special markup for key words, and for index terms, etc. to make the HOWTOs
> much easier to glean information out of.  I think I've rambled enough,
> please let me know if you have more questions.
> 
> 	Greg

Thank both of you for the information. I'll try to use the tools now.

Cheers,
Pal


Pal Domokos
Senior Consultant
SZUV
Hungary

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