Re: [docbook-apps] DocBook to XHTML/CSS

[Jens Porup <jens@porup.com>]

On Sat, Feb 26, 2005 at 02:11:38PM -0500, Michael D. Crawford wrote:
> I imagine that what I need to do is, instead of publishing with jade, to 
> use the available XML publishing tools with some kind of stylesheet 
> customization.  I'm technically competent and can run the tools on Linux, 
> Windows, or Mac OS X, but I've always found DocBook's toolchain quite 
> daunting, and don't know where to start.  Maybe you can help me out with a 
> clue or two.

Michael,

I've recently made the switch from jade (docbook2html, etc) to xsltproc.
The toolchain, including FOP, finally seems to be mature enough for the
switch, and I've very glad I've done so.

The place to start is, of course, the fine manual at sagehill.net.

As far as CSS goes, xsltproc converts element names to classes, so you
end up with html that has <class="sect1">, <class="chapter">, etc. You
simply pass the .css file as a parameter to xslproc, and away you go.

The main reason I made the switch is a) jade is an sgml hack, and I'm
using xml, and b) the jade toolchain to get to pdf is incredibly
contorted, and xlstproc with FOP a much sweeter way to get where you
want to go.

What you want to do sounds reasonably plain vanilla from an xstlproc
point of view, and I'd very surprised if you had to hack any of the
stylesheets (although someone with more savvy than myself might tell you
otherwise.)

hth,

Jens