Re: [docbook-apps] Microsoft AP Help and DocBook

[Jirka Kosek <jirka@kosek.cz>]

Kohei Yoshida wrote:

> I was wondering if anyone on this list knows of AP Help, which is
> Microsoft's new help format slated for inclusion with Windows Vista, and
> its implication with DocBook, more specifically, whether DocBook can be
> used to produce an AP Help as an output just like it currently does with
> HTML Help.

DocBook can be used to produce AP Help (MAML), but the stylesheets 
doesn't currently support this output format.

> Since the AP Help uses an XML schema called MAML, in theory it's just a
> matter of writing a good XSL stylesheet from DocBook to MAML.  

"Just" is probably not the best fit to describe situation here. Other 
help formats like HTML Help or Java Help are HTML based. It means that 
base DocBook HTML stylesheets was extended with just quite short code 
that generated necessary supplementary files. With MAML, situation is 
very different. You must create completely new stylesheet which will 
handle all 400+ DocBook elements and transform them to MAML. This is not 
work for two afternoons.

I doubt that someone will write this stylesheet just for fun as was the 
case for HTMLHelp, Java Help and Eclipse stylesheets. But with some 
funding I can imagine that you can convince me or some other core 
stylesheet developer to dig inside details of MAML schema and write the 
code necessary to transform DocBook into MAML.

				Jirka

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