RE: [docbook-apps] too confused to make progress

[Craig White <craig@tobyhouse.com>]

On Wed, 2007-01-10 at 18:59 -0500, Wright, Barton wrote:
> Craig,
> 
> Looking up the docbook2html and docbook2pdf commands that you're trying
> to use, I see that they are part of a Jade Wrapper family of commands
> under Linux. The Jade processor only supports DocBook SGML files. Most
> DocBook users today are using DocBook XML.  
> 
> For a bird's eye overview of DocBook, you can start with the Wikipedia
> article [1], and then browse some of the links on the DocBook Wiki [2].
> There are some Quick Start guides listed on the DocBookMarks page [3],
> but I can't vouch for their quality or accuracy.
> 
> For Windows users, most of the battle is getting the tools set up. As a
> Fedora user, you are already far ahead of that curve, since the tools
> are included with most Linux distributions. 
> 
> Use the latest version of the DocBook XML DTD that your tools support.
> Only DocBook versions 4.1.2 and 4.5 were formally declared OASIS
> standards, so if you're starting from scratch, use DocBook 4.5. There is
> a 5.0 version under development, but if you want to get up and running
> the fastest, stay with the 4.x series for now.
> 
> Although there are many Quick Start guides out there, the ones I read
> always presumed a great deal of prerequisite knowledge. I would suggest
> that there are no DocBook shortcuts, and that the best approach is to go
> through Bob Stayton's book [4], chapter by chapter, line by line. By
> about chapter 3 or 4, you will know enough to produce HTML and PDF
> output. After that, the rest of the book is about the customization that
> you will want to use eventually. 
> 
> Learning to use DocBook well is a bit of a climb, but the views on the
> way up are well worth the effort.
> 
> Good luck!
> 
> [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DocBook
> 
> [2] http://wiki.docbook.org
> 
> [3] http://linux.duke.edu/~mark/docbookmarks/
> 
> [4] http://www.sagehill.net/docbookxsl/index.html
> 
----
OK - thanks for the fish here...that was helpful. I will focus on Bob
Stayton's book for the immediate future.

I didn't know about the docbookmarks link at duke.edu but the others I
have stumbled across and tried to absorb.

I was been able to generate html and pdf files - with 'xmlto' yesterday
and I guess the most disconcerting thing is the very little progress in
long investment of time at first. I am hesitant to simply fire away
questions because I can see that between Norm Walsh and Bob Stayton, the
reference material is in place but the array of detail is incredibly
confusing for the beginner.

I will start again, and stay with Bob Stayton's book for the present and
see how far I can get.

Thanks

Craig