Re: [doc-mgmt] Standardized XML format for OASIS documents or document metadata

[John Kemp <john.kemp@earthlink.net>]

Matt,

As someone who has recently led an effort to standardize on using DocBook for single-source publishing of our specifications, I would agree that it is difficult to get people to edit DocBook. Based on my experience, I don't see how we will ever get people entirely away from using something like MS Word to author documents (unless better products come along that duplicate Word's functionality, but are more open with their file formats). But, I think there is a path that leads between the two - if we can specify that (for example) the canonical source format for Oasis documents is DocBook XML, and find ways to translate from Word, OpenOffice or other formats to DocBook, then I think this approach can succeed. 

I won't deny that there is a significant effort involved in building a publication system based on DocBook, but, there are some significant advantages:

1) DocBook is a textual format, which makes it much better for identifying differences between versions of a document. Many versioning systems can't diff binary files.
2) Publication to HTML or PDF (or even RTF) can all be accomplished from the same source document, with no editing changes. 
3) Document publication can be largely automated, and it's even possible to generate the latest copies of documents on the fly (Apache Cocoon is starting to make that possible). 

We publish the majority of the Liberty Project specifications using DocBook, and given the number of documents now involved in that project, I am very happy to be able to type a single command and have the system go off and make all of the latest document versions. So, I would highly recommend using DocBook, and although specifying a good WYSIWYG editing tool is one approach to this problem, another is to specify tools that can translate reliably between Word/OpenOffice and DocBook. 

And, after all, DocBook is an OASIS project!

Cheers,

- JohnK

________________________________
John Kemp / john.kemp@earthlink.net
(+1) 413.458.9053    /    frumioj@AOL
Coordinating Editor   /   Project Liberty

On Monday, Jun 2, 2003, at 17:31 US/Eastern, Matthew MacKenzie wrote:

> I'm a big fan of  using something like DocBook XML to author specs, and have the OASIS system manage all of the XSL to dynamically deliver the document, but to do this sort of thing requires OASIS to provide a license to some sort of WYSIWYG tool to all OASIS editors.
>
> I've tried and failed to get various OASIS'ers to use docbook, they always complain that it is to complicated...and it is too complicated for 90% of us.
>
> So, I'll add "editing tool" to Drummond's suggestion below.
>
> -Matt
>
> Drummond Reed wrote:
>
> > On today's doc-mgmt call I was reminded of the advantages that W3C has
> > enjoyed by standardizing on the format for their deliverables, and in
> > particular of making sure that at least metadata concerning any official
> > W3C document is available in a standard XML format.
> >
> > This is almost an extension of the requirement for persistent URIs, as
> > essentially it says that not only will there be a constant point at
> > which the document can be referenced, but a consistent way to query and
> > obtain metadata about the document that exists at that point (without
> > necessarily having to download or access the entire document).
> >
> > Providing a machine-readable, programmable interface to all OASIS
> > documents will, I suspect, be invaluable as OASIS specifications are
> > increasingly integrated with other XML specifications and repositories.
> >
> > =Drummond
> >
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>
>
>
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PGP.sig