DOCBOOK-APPS: Trying to find a DocBook solution that simply works

[Tom Epperly <tepperly@llnl.gov>]

I am part of a project where were are able to start writing perhaps 200
pages of documentation. We were interested in using DocBook because it
seemed like an up and coming standard that could deliver the document in
several formats.  We were considering using the DocBook XML definition.

I have spent the last 2-3 days trying to find a set of DocBook apps on
Linux that are robust and can generate HTML, PDF and perhaps RTF. I've
been working from a Debian Linux distribution and trying packages like
jade, openjade, sgmltools-lite, libxalan2-java, lib-fop-java, and
cygnus-stylesheet.

I haven't been able to find a combination of tools that is capable of
processing the online copy of DocBook The Definitive Guide (from
SourceForge) or all the examples on the version 0.0.1 CD that comes with
DocBook The Definitive Guide.  The available applications don't appear to
be that mature. I could only find minimal documentation for each tools,
and no tools worked on all the examples.

At this point, I am about to recommend using something other than DocBook,
and this isn't the recommendation I expected to be making.  Is there a set
of DocBook applications that can take a validated DocBook or DocBook XML
file and simply and reliably make HTML, PDF and RTF?

Tom

--
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Tom Epperly
Center for Applied Scientific Computing   Phone: 925-424-3159
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory      Fax: 925-424-2477
L-661, P.O. Box 808, Livermore, CA 94551  Email: tepperly@llnl.gov
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