Re: [docbook-apps] improve DocBook's HTML output

[Chris Maloney <voldrani@gmail.com>]

Well, it was just a suggestion.  Sometimes it's useful to have a nice looking document all in one file.  Of course I'd agree that its default value should be off.

On Mon, Nov 30, 2009 at 8:59 AM, <jdickey@seven-sigma.com> wrote:

Hi, guys,

(Jumping in a bit - as somebody who uses DocBook regularly but has a day
job doing bare-metal HTML/CSS coding)

As I understand the discussion thus far, what's wanted is an easy way for
new folks to generate/deploy DocBook-generated HTML that, as they progress
up the learning curve, they can customize/reuse the CSS for as well. If
this is the case - that the feature is to appeal to/be usable by both new
and experienced users, then I'd like to make one suggestion:

Please, please, *please* don't use inline-generated CSS. Have sensible,
overrideable defaults for where the CSS file(s) go, but *do not* put CSS
inline in the document header. Doing so will:
* cause grief for folks whose shop HTML standards call for unobtrusive,
progressive enhancement of HTML;
* make it more difficult to reuse customizations in the CSS used for a
project/shop;
* increase bandwidth required to serve the document, since the CSS won't be
cacheable across multiple HTML pages;
* etc., etc., etc.

Or if you absolutely *must* support the 'generate.header.css' configuration
as described, then make the default value '0'. But then, turning it on
would require a certain, very minimal, knowledge of How Things Work - and,
since the feature was proposed in the context of "how do we make it easier
for the new folks?", we've just given ourselves even more rope with which
to shoot ourselves in the foot. Yes?

My two cents, adjusted for inflation,

Jeff Dickey

On Sun, 29 Nov 2009 12:15:08 -0500, Chris Maloney <voldrani@gmail.com>
wrote:

> Well, if that's the goal, then I'd like to add another option for
> consideration: maybe called 'generate.header.css', or something, that
would
> cause the generated css to appear in the HTML header rather than in a
> separate file.
>
>
> 2009/11/29 Jirka Kosek <jirka@kosek.cz>
>
>> Chris Maloney wrote:
>>
>> >> 2.  A new param named 'generate.css', which when set to 1
>> >
>> > Why would this be necessary?  Presumably one, or possibly a set of
>> > static
>> > CSS files could be supplied that provide all the basic styling based
on
>> > classes used in the generated output.  Or, are you suggesting that the
>> XSL
>> > generate a per-output CSS with just the subset of the "master CSS"
>> styles?
>>
>> Generating CSS file on the fly simplifies deployment -- user doesn't
>> have to copy CSS into target directory. This is easy, but for newcomers
>> it is much more handy if there are no additional steps required to
>> generate working output.
>>
>>                                Jirka
>>
>> --
>> ------------------------------------------------------------------
>>   Jirka Kosek      e-mail: jirka@kosek.cz      http://xmlguru.cz
>> ------------------------------------------------------------------
>>       Professional XML consulting and training services
>>  DocBook customization, custom XSLT/XSL-FO document processing
>> ------------------------------------------------------------------
>>  OASIS DocBook TC member, W3C Invited Expert, ISO JTC1/SC34 member
>> ------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>>