Re: [docbook-apps] production environment

["Keith Fahlgren" <abdelazer@gmail.com>]

> On 8/7/06, Aaron Mehl <aamehl@actcom.net.il> wrote:
> > 5. How practical is it to round trip authoring in msword and publishing
> > in docbook?

Not really very practical, unless you use a very limited set of
tagging in Word or can be _extremely_ sure that authors will follow
style guidelines correctly (I've never seen this).

> > 6. Do the writers like docbook or word better?

Most folks prefer Word, especially if they need to edit/copyedit or
use Track Changes. However, technical/open source types tend to prefer
DocBook (or any non-Word).

> > 7. Is this possible with free software or must commercial apps be used?

Free software (xsltproc/saxon, docbook-xsl stylesheets, XML Mind, etc)
will get you most of the way, but you may run into problems when you
get to an FO Processor.

> > 8. What unexpected costs obstacles arouse during the conversion process.

Going from flat WordProcessingML to deep DocBook is always tricky,
especially if the input is flexible. That doesn't mean it's
impossible, just that it'll take time and knowledge of the input.

> > 10. If you were given the choice to do it over again would you still
> > move to using Docbook?

Yes.

> > 11. Were the docbookxsl style sheets enough with customizations or were
> > new style sheets built from the ground up necessary?

No, you can produce complex technical documentation with good layout
and typography with a modern FO processor and (extensive)
customizations to the default stylesheets. For example, see the
recently published Unicode Explained
(http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/unicode) which was produced from
XSL-FO and looks
quite good (though perhaps I'm no the best judge).


HTH,
Keith