Re: DOCBOOK-APPS: Help please: new user questions

[Tomas Aragon <aragon@medepi.org>]

At 10:35 PM 3/22/02 -0600, Markus Hoenicka wrote:
>James Buchanan writes:
>  > I just wish someone would come up with a package that installed
>  > DocBook things ready to go. This is the most difficult software I have
>  > ever had to install in 10 years. I wonder why it has to be so
>  > difficult? I have a book on DocBook, but apart from fine functioning
>  > as a paperweight, it's useless.
>
>Jon Foster and I will release SGML/XML packages for Cygwin (a Unix
>emulation running on Windows) in the next couple of days
>(hopefully). This will allow the same convenience of installation as
>you may be used from Debian. It will include OpenJade, xsltproc,
>DocBook SGML and XML DTDs, DocBook DSSSL and XSL stylesheets, TEI XML
>DTD and TEI XSL stylesheets. The TeX packages will (eventually)
>contain JadeTeX, xmltex, and PassiveTeX to allow Postscript and PDF
>output out of the box. Would you like to have anything else?
>
>  > Maybe I should suggest to OASIS what my experiences have been and urge
>  > them to write a beginner's document in plain, simple language of how
>  > to use DocBook, especially on Windows because UNIX users have the
>  > luxury of sgmltools/sgmltools-lite, and binary packages as rpms, debs,
>  > etc. Windows users are stuck with broken Jades and OpenJades it seems.
>  > There should be an EXE programme that installs the lot ready to go, so
>  > one can issue a command on the command line and use DocBook straight
>  > away.
>  >
>
>Once again, please have a look at:
>
>http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/hoenicka_markus/ntsgml.html
>
>While this is not limited to DocBook, it explains the setup of a SGML
>and XML editing and publishing system on Windows using only free
>software. DocBook is used as one example (besides HTML) for installing
>SGML DTDs. The feedback that I have gotten from users of this tutorial
>during the past several years indicates that this document
>significantly decreases the pain of setting up DocBook et al. on
>Windows.
>
>regards,
>Markus
>
>--
>Markus Hoenicka
>hoenicka_markus@compuserve.com
>http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/hoenicka_markus/

I strongly agree: it's an awesome tutorial! I am a complete novice to 
Docbook SGML/XML and completed the whole tutorial. Not only did I learn a 
tremendous amount but I have both Docbook SGML and XML working properly and 
producing HTML, RTF, PDF, and TeX output (of course, with some help from 
Markus when I made some errors). Great job Markus!
Tomas