Re: DOCBOOK-APPS: DocBook with AbiWord?

[David Bovill <david.bovill@opn-technologies.com>]

> From: Tom Emerson <tree@basistech.com>
> Subject: Re: DOCBOOK-APPS: DocBook with AbiWord?
> 
> How is this different from using (GNU|X)Emacs with psgml-mode? I use
> GNU Emacs with psgml-mode to edit DocBook-based (though SGML, not XML)
> documentation on both Unixen and Win2K boxes: works like a champ for
> my purposes.
> 

Maybe it's not - when my ISP gets around to fixing its http connection -
I'll see if I can get something working on me PPC. So if there is a cross
platform solution out there which is easy to install and get started I won't
bother.

I'd see Emacs as an upgrade path -:)

> From: Norman Walsh <ndw@nwalsh.com>
> Subject: DOCBOOK-APPS: Re: DocBook with AbiWord?
> 
> / Daniel Veillard <veillard@redhat.com> was heard to say:
> |   Very few could actually accept the rigidity due to the document structure
> | and associated constraints. The problem is not technical, but nearly social
> 
> At can be ameliorated by technology, though. If you had a sufficiently
> configurable structured editor, you could make a fairly intuitive
> DocBook editor out of it by configuring it to "do the right DocBook
> thing" everywhere a word processor user expects it to "do the right
> thing".
> 
> If the user clicks "bold" when they're between two paras, add the para...
> 
> If the user marks a para and clicks "numbered list", wrap an orderedlist
> and a listitem around the para.
> 
> etc. etc. etc.
> 

Sounds about right to me. NB - I don't think I'd aim to create a general
purpose editor either, something tailored for basic documents... want to do
more - get Emacs/psgml.