Re: [docbook-apps] Simpler XHTML output

[Rene Hache <rene.hache@gmail.com>]

Larry,

> I can do you one better, as it's online now.  Not the prettiest page
> I've ever done, but it demonstrates what I'm talking about.
> 
> http://www.star-fleet.com/library/handbook/
> 
> Note how the TOC on the index page is "normal", while the TOCs on each
> chapter page float right with an alternate background color.

I've thinking about this, and I believe that we can do much better in
terms of output, with simpler code. Remember that I was suggesting
that each XHTML page have four ID divs: header, navigation, content
and footer.

To me, what should go in the navigation div is a nested list, and from
that list we could create a either a left, right or horizontal menu
bar. We could also create a next/previous link in there, but the point
is that we could create a entire DocBook navigation rather easily,
without much code.

For example, code would output like the example below (please note
that we could do this for as many levels of depth that we wanted.)

<div id="navigation">
     <ul>
           <li>Chapter Name
                <ul>
                <li>Section Name</li>
                <li>Section Name</li>
           </li>
     </ul>
</div>

Anyway, to me this makes more sense: it's totally doable (to use a
real technical term!), plus you can generate CSS drop down lists from
that code. For examples of how you can style lists, check this site:
http://css.maxdesign.com.a u/index.htm

Thanks,
Rene