Re: [docbook-tc] DocBook 4.2 is the "current" DTD

[Michael Smith <smith@xml-doc.org>]

Note that if you search google for "docbook oasis" that's the
second hit that comes up -

  http://www.google.com/search?q=docbook+oasis

And it shows a last-updated date at Google of 24 Oct 2004.

I wonder if it'd be too out of line to suggest we might actually
start considering the idea of taking DocBook elsewhere.  Or at
least start asking some serious questions: Is the current OASIS
infrastructure serving the needs of the TC and the needs of the
DocBook user community? Are we staying with OASIS due to inertia
or is there some real value that DocBook is getting from it?

If we were in the situation of developing a new standard and
struggling to get industry and community acceptance for it, I
could see that working through the OASIS process and dealing with
these hassles would be tolerable, as long as it meant that we
ended up being able to say to users that our product was finally
a real standard, approved by a recognized standards body.

But the thing is, at this point, DocBook doesn't really need that.
We already have wide acceptance and a firmly established user
community that has chosen DocBook because of its intrinsic value,
not because it happens to be affiliated with OASIS.

The community does have a need to know and trust that official
versions of DocBook are stable and usable before they invest in
adopting them.  But I think we can do that just as effectively on
our own as we can through OASIS. Better, in fact. Honestly, how,
specifically, does being affiliated with OASIS faciliate coming up
with an official updated version of DocBook? It seems like the TC
performs the work of doing that pretty much on its own.

Actually, it seems like in some ways OASIS is actually hindering
the TC's work. Certainly the current web infrastructure is
hindering the TC from being able to ensure that it is providing
easy-to-get, up-to-date information about DocBook to the community.

Perhaps during further discussion of the move to DocBook 5 we
might also discuss the possibility of moving to another process
and another place that will better faciliate the work of trying to
put together the next standard -- and better faciliate
communication with the user community as we're working on it.

  --Mike

Bob Stayton <bobs@sagehill.net> writes:

> Hi Norm,
> One of my clients just reported to me that  "DocBook XML V4.2 is the current
> XML version of DocBook" according to the OASIS website:
> 
> http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/
> 
> I know you have struggled with getting OASIS to change some of these pages,
> so I hate to reopen old wounds.  But that information is now over two years
> old, and it creates no end of confusion about the current DocBook version.
> Should I write to Karl Best about this situation?

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