Re: [docbook-apps] Linux Weekly News: A quick look at Conglomerate0.70

[David Tolpin <dvd@davidashen.net>]

> I don't understand how could Docbook "replace" MSWord when (as I understand 
> it) they are very different things: Docbook is a system for writing 
> structured XML documents (or SGML, I suppose) 

DocBook is for writing documents.  The fact that they are marked up in (SG|X)ML is
a means, not the purpose.

> and Word is a word-processing application.  

Or a system for writing binary-format styled documents? Definitely not. Both are
for documents, with roughly the same objective -- editable documents in a retargetable
format. And DocBook is better for many applications.

> Word is used to edit compatible files that contain text 
> and/or images (independent of structure), but Docbook describes how your 
> document is going to behave structurally, independent of what apps you use 
> to edit files adhering to that structure.

DocBook DTD is used to describe, DocBook editors are used to edit, DocBook stylesheets
are used to format. What is DocBook?

> And I have some difficulty imagining my grandmother sitting down to write a 
> short letter using Docbook XML (actually, I wouldn't do that either -- 
> MSWord, for all it's shortcomings, is perfectly sufficient for that task at 
> present :)

That's because the tools are not as convenient (and have the wrong design), not
because the idea is less appropriate. It is more appropriate for grandmothers
than Word, actually.

David Tolpin
http://davidashen.net/