Re: DOCBOOK-APPS: Again: Apache FOP,Docbook: Features / Versions,"complete" Docbook distribution

[Carlos Araya <carlos@cvc.edu>]

On 01/14/02 23:05, "Dave Pawson" <daveP@dpawson.freeserve.co.uk> wrote:

> At 21:11 14/01/2002 +0100, Alexander Schatten wrote:
> 
> 
>> the meaning is this: off course: provide current updates off all
>> subprojects for the specialists. but PLEASE provide ONE solution, that
>> does is all for the "normal" user. this one must not be updated that often
>> and also needs not to support xsl and dsssl and css and latex and...
> 
> That does make a lot of sense people.
Do you think it's possible for us to agree on using a certain set of tools
then? Is there such a one-step-wonder solution for creating documents with
Docbook? Is there a tool that converts docbook to other formats without
using xsl or dsssl?

> 
>> sorry, but the main point you start searching is http://www.docbook.org
>> the FAQ there is pretty short, and gives no information about xsl or fo
>> stuff I would need.
> 
> Fair comment. It is new.
> 
> 
>>>> I am rather stubborn and want to get the thing running; but as I
>>>> mentioned before: 98 to 99% of all others take a look at for example
>>>> docbook; play around for an hour, dont get the stuff running, and (this
>>>> is the main point and danger!!) never come back, because the say: "this
>>>> is much too complex and does not work".
>>> How much of that is Docbook's problem and how much of that is a problem with
>>> the Docbook Toolchain either for XSL or DSSSL?
> 
> The toolchain works well for (as you say, 95% of user needs).
> The tagset the same. The variants make it a pig to start (to keep your car
> analogy)
> 
> 
> 
>>> If we could all agree on a toolset to recommend to beginners, then it would
>>> be easier to write instructions for them and I'd be more than delighted to
>>> write it myself.
> 
> Sure?
I would at least give it a shot, if we can recommend one toolchain to
newbies so that Docbook is not as intimidating to them as it was to me when
I started, I would love to write it and help people out that way


> I have my tools. As a newbie what outputs do you want, i.e. which elements of
> the toolchain would you choose?
I would pick HTML for web delivery and PDF for print. We can generate a lot
of the other formats starting from there. I also believe that the startup is
90% of the work... Picking up the correct version of every single thing
(docbook, stylesheets and toolchain processing tools) is where we loose a
lot of people


> 
> Regards DaveP
> 

-- 
Carlos E. Araya
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80/20 Rule: Simplicity vs. complexity. 80 percent of the
functionality/feature set of an "ideal" solution set, with only 20 percent
of the complexity of the ideal solution or 20 percent of the effort required
to build the ideal solution; or put another way, the last 20 percent of the
"ideal" feature set is what creates the most complexity