Re: [docbook-apps] newbie help with DSSSL

[Thomas Clive Richards <thomi@thomi.imail.net.nz>]

Thanks for clearing that us...

I'm still rather confused however. Here's my latest confusion:

in this file:

http://savannah.nongnu.org/cgi-bin/viewcvs/*checkout*/alcovebook/alcovebook-sgml/stylesheet/dsssl/docbook/print/book-article.dsl?rev=HEAD&content-type=text/plain

the following lines are used:

(define ($page-number-format$ #!optional (gi (gi)))
        "1")


Apart from not knowing what it does, it's not listed *anywhere* in the DSSSL 
documentation... I know, I've just been through the entire reference.

Furthermore, in the extensions.dsl file, there are a few lines like:

(define color-red (color rgb-color-space 1 0 0))

I'm assuming that this defines the keyword "color-red" to a valid RGB color, 
correct? why is this done? I can't see it being used anywhere else, in any of 
the other files....

Where can I find this information?

in refcard.dsl, a similar line defines "bg-color". THis makes some more 
sense.. is "bg-color" something the system looks for, when generating PDF's?


> > For example, the page numbers in the TOC are wrong.. they don't count the
> > pages the title page, and table of contnets take up.. this menas that the
> > page numbers in gv or kghostview don't match the page numbers in the TOC.
> > Is there a way to change this? I can't see any nice tag to do it...
>
> This not a markup issue.  It is a consequence of how jadetex works:
> you have to run (pdf)jadetex multiple times, until it does not
> complain any more that "references have changes".
>
> Some scripts can do that for you.  For example, sgml2x can do that
> automatically (you can fetch it from savannah CVS -
> https://savannah.nongnu.org/projects/alcovebook/ - or from
> http://ftp.debian.org/debian/pool/main/s/sgml2x/ - if you install from
> source, some fixes in the Debian diff may be useful).
>
> I suppose docbook2x does as well.
>


ummm.. now I'm completely lost. I'm using docbook2x, and have read the man 
page, but can't see anything about page numbers, or references...

> > Also, things like changing text colours, specifying an image for the
> > title page, an image for *all* the page backgrounds.... little fine
> > tunging changes...
>
> Except for background images, which are not supported by (open)jade as
> of now, you can find examples in the AlcoveBook stylesheets at
> http://savannah.nongnu.org/cgi-bin/viewcvs/alcovebook/alcovebook-sgml/style
>sheet/dsssl/docbook/print/
>

I've looked through these, and I'm afraid I still don't understand... why are 
some items defined in the DSSSL docs (I'm using these:
http://docbook.sourceforge.net/release/dsssl/current/doc/print/index.html ), 
but not others?


> Your xml file contains only "content" information, as opposed to
> "presentation", which is defined by the stylesheet.  docbook2pdf is
> part of the docbook2x package, and takes care of the details of
> applying the stylesheet (as does docbook-2-html from sgml2x, with
> different features).
>

Are you saying that the values I can modify in the stylesheet are dependant on 
which converter I use? If so, which converter should I be using? 

> Note that, if you're using XML for the markup, you may want to look at
> XSL stylesheets, although I don't know what the current states of the
> available toolchains are, wrt PDF generation.
>

Actually, I'm 99% sure that my markup could be XML or SGML, I'd just have to 
change the filename.... I can't remember why I chose to use a .xml extension 
on the files....


Can someone help explain this? my hjead is spinning :P

-- 

Thomi Richards,
thomi@once.net.nz