Re: [docbook] An apology and some minor revelations

[Tobias Reif <tobiasreif@pinkjuice.com>]

Daniel Veillard wrote:


>   I do not have a complete suggestion. The whole thread comes from end-user
> feedback who cannot understand the whole set of spec and components needed
> to process DocBook. It seems that having an integrated environment where
> a complete set of tools is glued together to simplify those issues is 
> a software project which could help DocBook deployment to non-technical
> people a lot.


Definitely.

> This could cross a lot of things:
>    - wrapper tools around existing low level processing tools
>    - editing support ((X)Emacs/OpenOffice/... components)


Sounds good. And I even think that for beginners, and for people who are 
happy with the defaults of basic options (projects where no heavy 
customization is required), the package you are describing should come 
as one file, complete with installer (for Mac/Win/Lin and more), and a 
GUI where the user can set permanent and per project options, run 
transformations, manage source documents, etc.

Dropdown menus for available tools, explorer views for source docs, 
named projects, transformation options, perhaps even graphical 
pipeline/toolchain editing ... in parts, this would basically be a GUI 
for shell scripts / batch files / commandlines, just as the CD burning 
front ends are.

What I didn't like or misunderstood was "defining DocBook as a system, 
only as a language". But I agree that a package providing an easy to use 
(no hassle) DocBook setup would help many. It could even be fun :), and 
offer powerful features for advanced users.

Tobi

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