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Subject: DOCBOOK: The DocBook community thanks Norm
I think it's time that Norm Walsh got what was coming to him: A BIG THANK YOU Norm, The DocBook community wants to make sure you know how much your unflagging efforts are appreciated. Below is the overwhelming worldwide response to a single suggestion on the DocBook mailing lists (minus you, of course) to thank you. Savor each one. --------------------------------------------------------------------- From: "Juan R. Migoya" <jmigoya@ingeteam.es> Thanks Norm: You have made a great contribution in helping us to jump that big gap between the "traditional" mode of making documentation to the "content based" approach, and perhaps you have not always received good words in return. Juan R. Migoya SPAIN --------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Derek Hohls <DHohls@csir.co.za> Simply this: Without DOCBOOK, and Norm Walsh, my project would not have got off the ground. He took the time to send detailed personal replies to some pretty dumb newbie questions. That shows interest and caring above and beyond the call. Cheers mate! Derek --------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Dave Pawson <daveP@dpawson.freeserve.co.uk> >I think it's time that Norm Walsh got what was coming to him: > >A BIG THANK YOU +10 He's never failed to provide a polite, accurate answer to even the silly questions. He's helped me through my SGML and XML learning curves over 4 years. I feel sure docbook and its stylesheets have caused more movement towards XML than any other toolchain. Could I add that a vote of thanks be given to his better half for her patience, I'm sure Norm is seldom seen outside his computer, there simply aren't enough hours in the day :-) Thanks Norm. Regards DaveP --------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Sami Lempinen <sami@lempinen.net> Greetings, Thanks to Norman Walsh for being instrumental in bringing SGML and XML to the mainstream. -Sami Lempinen --------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Hsueh-Hsiang Lu <lu@gate.sinica.edu.tw> Thank Norm for his efforts for this mailing list, especially his enthusiam for answering questions which I always think already in the FAQs Sidney Lu Academia Sinica Computing Centre Taiwan, Taipei --------------------------------------------------------------------- From: anonymous Hello, "Great DTD. Great stylesheets. Great book. Great support. Great commitment. Thank you, Norm!" --------------------------------------------------------------------- From: "Budde, Frido" <friedrich.budde@viadee.de> I've been using the docbook xsl stylesheets for documentation in several different projects and found them to be very valuable and useful. Without them it wouldn't have been possible to create top quality documentation with respect to content, layout and presentation. So I'd like to thank Norm Walsh for his excellent work over the years. Please keep up the good work!!! Frido Budde --------------------------------------------------------------------- From: "Prikryl,Petr" <PRIKRYLP@skil.cz> Hi Norm, While I am still considering myself to be a DocBook beginner, I feel that DocBook XML will play an important role in the company where I work and where I silently want to introduce it. The DocBook sheds the light to the nightmares of a documentation process, and you are one of those who really helps to make the DocBook usefull and accessible to many people. Because of this I would like to add my personal thanks for what you have already done, and I also wish you all the best for the future. Petr --------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Jeff Iezzi <jeff.iezzi@semanticedge.com> You answer questions patiently and persistently, your tone is always friendly, and your work is very inspirational. While the depth and complexity of your style sheets may seem daunting at times, your work benefits the whole DocBook community. Thank you for your guidance, hard work, and commitment. Warmest greetings from a chilly Berlin, Jeff Iezzi --------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Holger Rauch <Holger.Rauch@heitec.de> Hi Norm! Fist of all, let me express wholeheartedly my thanks for your great work and patience in answering the many questions from the rest DocBook community. I don't know where the DocBook development would be without your contributions. Maybe it would long have ceased to exist. Thanks again and keep up the great work! Greetings, Holger --------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Daniel Veillard <veillard@redhat.com> Though relatively new to the DocBook community, I have had the chance to work with him a bit longer within the reals of the W3C work and in both communities Norm's technical knowledge and dedication to improving the current set of standards and tools is outstanding and appreciated to its true value ! Thanks Norm, keep up the excellent work ! Daniel --------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Carsten Wartmann <c.wartmann@gmx.net> Hello Norm, your work helped me to make my living the last year, I was successfull in writing a complete book (about game creation) and severeal other documents. Especially that I could generate HTML for review purposes and RTF for giving it to DTP helped me to be the free-tools bastion in a world with many winodws and thus combine both worlds. THANKS! Carsten Wartmann --------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Christoph Steinbeck <steinbeck@ice.mpg.de> Dear Norm, thanks so much for all your work on docbook. It has made my life as a software engineer, programmer and academic scientist so much easier. Virtually everything that we publish is somehow based on your work: Our program documentation, our scientific articles and also my lecture notes and slides. And besides all this, you never even failed to answer any of my support requests :-) Thanks again, Chris --------------------------------------------------------------------- From: "Paul A. Hoadley" <paulh@logicsquad.net> "Norm, Many thanks for your huge effort." Paul. --------------------------------------------------------------------- From: David Bovill <david.bovill@opn-technologies.com> I'm new to DocBook - but there are two things I can tell from the outset; first that the vision is and has always been right, and second that anyone who puts in that amount of effort and consistency into an open source project like this demands our respect and admiration, David --------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Giuseppe Greco <giuseppe.greco@fantastic.com> Norm, I would just repeat what Bob said: A BIG THANK YOU. Thanks for your work, for your support, for your patience, for ... Giuseppe --------------------------------------------------------------------- From: "Rolander, Dan" <Dan.Rolander@marriott.com> Norm-- Thank you for all of your work over the years on DocBook. I use it to generate technical documentation and find it invaluable. Please keep up the good work! Dan Rolander --------------------------------------------------------------------- From: eric.laney@verizon.com When I first started learning XML, it was because I had the really cool idea to put together a way to do all my documentation in a portable format that I could then transform into HTML, PDF, or any other format with ease. Luckily, I did the research first and found that the work had already been done for me. Thanks, Norm, for not only having the vision, but for putting action to it so that it became reality. Eric A. Laney --------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Michael Westbay <westbay@users.sourceforge.net> Norm, I was amazed at what could be done with DocBook when I first started. And i18n was already well supported and only got better. This is an incredible package, and to be so responsive to bug reports has amazed me time and time again. You've done an outstanding job. Thank you. -- Michael Westbay --------------------------------------------------------------------- From: "Bradford, Denis" <denisb@rational.com> Writers and information architects like me have long railed against the constraints of narrow proprietary formats and paradigms. Over the years I've tried - but mostly failed - to pull together standards-based documentation solutions that mere mortals could implement. Now, the incredible tools and systems you have been patiently building have reached a point of maturity where the worst barriers to open solutions are simply melting away. So the work you're doing is nothing less than revolutionary: you are opening all kinds of new possibilities for documentation. Bravo Norm! ______________ Denis Bradford CTG Documentation Rational Software Corporation --------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Dave Mason <dmason@dmason.net> Norm, A super-big thank you from the Red Hat team, the GNOME team, and me. Your selflessness in your work and help with all things Docbook can never fully be appreciated. Also I still have a copy of an email where you promised me a beer - I will keep it safe! Cheers, Dave Mason --------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Rory Hunter <roryh@dcs.ed.ac.uk> Norm's been a great help in getting me using DocBook effectively. I love working with DocBook, and I'm very grateful that he (and other) invested the time and effort to create it, and maintain it. Cheers Norm, you're the best! roryh --------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Rick Bronson <rick@efn.org> Norm, Thanks a million for all of the times you have help me and the docbook community, it wouldn't have progressed to the point it is now if it wasn't for your diligence! Rick Bronson --------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Gary Lawrence Murphy <garym@canada.com> Although our industry likes to hide its personalities, there are those who manage to stand outside the anonymous masks, and who have changed not only the way I use computers, but fundamentally changed how I work, so much so that I could never go back. This list includes Don Knuth, K&R, Jim Gosling, Vint Cerf and other IT celebrities. But above freely providing their "disruptive technology", some these people also freely give of their own time to personally help total strangers like me to understand, adapt and use their way of doing things; one-on-one support -- this is the truly amazing part. In that shorter list of "open, friendly and patient beyond the call of duty" I'd include the legendary likes of Richard Stallman, Linus Torvalds and Norm Walsh. "Thanks" (and buying your book) isn't payment enough; I can only attempt to repay this debt by trying my best to do for others as you all have done for me. Gary Lawrence Murphy <garym@teledyn.com> CEO TeleDynamics Communications Inc http://www.teledyn.com --------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Jonathan Marks <jm@cmex.org> Great Work Norm, I switched to using DocBook early 2001, and took to it for documentation, like a duck to water. Thanks very much for making something useful. Jonathan --------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Lane Stevens <lane@cycletime.com> Norm: Docbook rocks, and largely because of your tireless work! Thank you for your dedication and effort. I particularly appreciate your willingness to jump in and help out when questions are posted to the mailing list. Thanks, Lane. --------------------------------------------------------------------- From: "Hildebrandt, Nancy" <nancy.hildebrandt@documentum.com> What impresses me most about Norm (beyond his vision, persistence, dedication, and huge contribution to an important project) is his unflagging cheerfulness and courtesy on the DOCBOOK list. Norm, you have inspired and helped more people than you can imagine. Nancy --------------------------------------------------------------------- From: David Merrill <david@lupercalia.net> The Linux Documentation Project relies on DocBook for our publication systems. We have several projects underway that build on DocBook to do document management and publication. Norm's works have been some of the most important to us, because they make our lives easier and give us capabilities we just wouldn't have otherwise. Thank You, Norm! David C. Merrill --------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Ronald Hayden <rhayden@apple.com> Every document I create now, personally and professionally, uses your tools. Thanks to you I can just think about what I'm writing, and let you worry about what it looks like!" -- Ron Hayden --------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Arun Khan <arunk@surjait.com> When I started to write a hand book for a Linux class, I had to decide whether to use a commercial or an open sourceword processor. I got interested in using DocBook because of it's versality - one source many output formats and the fact that it is open source. The "DocBook: The Definitive Guide" co-authored by Norman Walsh, available in HTML format, was instrumental in my transition to using DocBook and Norm's style sheets. I consider myself a DocBook newbie and the style sheets developed and maintained by Norm certainly go a long way in shortening the learning curve for DocBook. Thank you Norm for all the effort you have put into DocBook and the style sheets. Best wishes and regards, Arun Khan --------------------------------------------------------------------- From: "Nancy (Paisner) Harrison" <nancyh@rational.com> I think anyone who knows something about DocBook agrees that we in the DocBook community all owe Norm a great deal. Ever since he joined the Davenport group (about 10 years ago, as I remember...) and started working on DocBook, he's consistently gone way above and beyond the call of duty to support his co-developers, folks working on associated technologies, and the user community, to which I recently returned. I personally find it hard to imagine DocBook having attained its current robust, fairly stable state were it not for Norm's persistent efforts. While it was a good piece of work to begin with, and had many capable contributors, even the best work product requires polish and maintenance to keep it functional and compatible with current technology. For example, however good an SGML DTD it was, how relevant would it be at this point if no one had taken responsibility for moving it from SGML to XML, ...? And how many folks would use it if there weren't good documentation - i.e., Norm's book - available to figure it out? Thanks, Norm!!! Nancy --------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Alexander Schatten <alasan@gmx.net> I think the Docbook framework is an excellent concept for cross media publishing. I hope the development continues in the quality as we know it and documentation continues to improve. Thank you Norman Walsh for your excellent work. best wishes Alex --------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Bruno Cornec <Bruno_Cornec@hp.com> I think it's a great idea as Norm is always kind to support DocBook users, whatever their knowledge, giving musered and accurate answers, improving his software the best way possible, having created a sourceforge project to allow a better management,... I just wish that every sw project could be managed in such a clever way ! Kudos Norm. Hope you'll receive thousands of replies that Norm deserves. Bruno. --------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Bob McIlvride <robert@cogent.ca> Hi Norm, I never cease to be amazed at your hard work, high standards, concise answers, and amazing signature quotes. All of us who work with documentation here at Cogent truly appreciate everything you have done to help us transform our docs from unmanageable Word files into a coherent, consistent, publishable whole. We thank you very much, Bob McIlvride Paul Benford Andrew Thomas Manuel Dias Sam Roberts --------------------------------------------------------------------- From: "Thacker, Brad" <Brad_Thacker@jdedwards.com> As a Newbie to DocBook, I'm awed by the complexity and sophistication of both the DTD and the stylesheets. They were obviously very well thought out, and Norm Walsh must have spent countless hours developing them. But as great as Norm's intellect and drive may be, he has an even greater quality which I greatly appreciate - patience. When I first began to use the DocBook stylesheets, before I realized what an unending stream of e-mail Norm must recieve, I wrote to him directly requesting help with an xslt parser problem. After a series of five e-mail exchanges, he solved my problem. To have both awesome expertise and a compassion for newbies is quite rare, but I'm very grateful the DocBook community is blessed with such a great leader - Thanks, Norm! Brad Thacker --------------------------------------------------------------------- From: "Karl F. Best" <karl.best@oasis-open.org> OASIS would like to express its appreciation for the many and varied efforts that Norm has made in furthering the consortium's technical. In addition to his work with the DocBook DTD and chairing the DocBook TC, Norm has also contributed heavily to the efforts of other OASIS TCs, and also provided OASIS with technical expertise in building our IT infrastructure. I have personally worked with Norm for many years and have always admired his technical expertise and appreciated his willingness to lend his time and talents to furthering the cause of interoperable standards. -Karl F. Best, OASIS Director of Technical Operations --------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Jochen Hein <jochen@jochen.org> Well, thanks Norm. I'm using Docbook for a couple of years now, for publishing, websites and slides. I do like having a similar environment for them, and like the style of your stylesheets ;-) Still very impressed Jochen --------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Ismael Olea <ismael@olea.org> In Spanish: +Norman, eres cojonudo; :-) A.Ismael Olea Gonzalez --------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Carlos <carlos@cvc.edu> Norm: Thanks for all you wonderful work on Docbook... The Definitive guide was my book of choice to learn how to use it and your patience in answering questions when I was so sure I was right... And I wasn't. You've taught me a lot about documentation writing and about supporting other people and I hope I can put what you've taught me (without knowing) and give back to the community. Thanks Carlos --------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Laurent Pointal <laurent.pointal@lure.u-psud.fr> [Difficult to express complete thanks in english for me, so I will do it in french - hope there will be many different languages.] Cher Monsieur Norman Walsh, j'appricie beaucoup tout ce que vous avez fait et faites encore pour l'idition de documents ` l'aide de DocBook. Je suis impressionni par votre patience avec les questions qui arrivent sur les listes de diffusion, par votre traitement en direct pour aider ` risoudre certains problhmes (j'en suis timoin), par votre rapiditi ` ripondre aux posts sur la liste. Pour tout cela, un grand MERCI. Amicalement. Laurent Pointal. --------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Jeffrey Lomas <jeff.lomas@oasis-open.org> I have had the previlige to correspond with Norm from time to time and have always found him to be a helpful and insightful person. Jeffrey Lomas OASIS --------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Tristan Bishop <tristan@inviosoftware.com> Norm, we appreciate your example of service. It amazes me that you continually donate your time, talents and imagination to help other people accomplish their goals. Your tireless work has helped me and my team realize our vision of unified documentation. I don't see this as possible without your sacrifice. We're especially aware of your daily and prompt attention to the countless questions that fly over the lists. You, and others you've inspired, continue to build our hope that it's ok to be helpful without charging a fee. Thanks again and again. Tristan David Bishop --------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Eric Richardson <eric.richardson@milagrosoft.com> Norm, Thank-you for all the work and energy you have put into the Docbook and associated technologies. Your personal attention and almost endless patience on the docbook-apps list is refreshing and highly appreciated. We all know some lists are not so friendly. This is very important work and really changes the long term face of publishing that perhaps will change the way we look at documents - at least hopefully. Please know that we appreciate the support your company hopefully gives you for this important work. By the looks of it, there is a bit of fun for you as well. Best wishes and a toast to the future! Eric --------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Ian Castle <ian.castle@looksystems.co.uk> My immediate response at glancing at the first paragraphs of Bob's email was one of alarm. "Oh no! - is Norm retiring from the field? or is he perhaps ill?" Then, as I read further and found this was not the case, my response turned to one of relief. An interesting reaction on my part to someone that I have never meant and cannot even claim to know. Not only has Norm continually delivered high quality, interesting and extremely useful work over the years - work that is now central to both my, and my company's information handling and document processing systems - but that work has been both generously and freely given. I continue to be impressed by Norm's dedication and staying power (how long has he been doing this now!) and the level of patience that he displays on the mailing list - answering queries at whatever level. I think it is fair to say that Norm is the cornerstone of the community - a strong presence across all aspects from design to development and through to support. Not only is Norm's work impressive, but the style with which it is done is an exemplar to all in the community and beyond. So not only am I grateful for "the product", but I am also grateful for the man himself. Saying A BIG THANK YOU is the least I can do. Regards, Ian. --------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Ben Curtis <docbook@bencurtis.com> Thanks, Norm, for all the incredible work you've done with DocBook. You've given my inner technical writer a means of expression that also appeals to my inner software developer. How I love the concept of using descriptive markup for my documentation, and DocBook is a wonderful implementation of that concept! Keep up the good work, and thank you again. Benjamin Curtis --------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Tim Waugh <twaugh@redhat.com> Norm: thank you for putting as much effort as you do into making DocBook the success that it is! Tim. --------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Karl Eichwalder <ke@gnu.franken.de> <qandaentry> <question> <para>Why using <productname/DocBook/?</> </> <answer> <para><author role="spiritus rector">Norman Walsh</> is on board.</> </> </qandaentry> -- ke@suse.de (work) / keichwa@gmx.net (home): | --------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Park Yong Joo <yongjoo@kldp.org> Hi. My name is Park Yong Joo. I am a contributor to Korean localization of DocBook. I am amazed at how you could have such good idea! :) Thank you for such good idea. Here is the thanks message from Korea. I wish this message included your great email. --- We Korean users give our thanks to Normal Walsh. In Korea, mostly all advances of documentation environment are primarily based on DocBook and its Korean localization. DocBook has been adopted as a standard format by Korean Linux Documentation Project(http://kldp.org) and other free documentation projects. Also it is going to spread to everywhere needs effective documentation. We thank Norm for his great contribution to these advances of Korean documentation environment. Thank You. With regards from Seoul. yongjoo --------------------------------------------------------------------- From: "Eve L. Maler" <eve.maler@sun.com> I'm lucky enough to work with (or is that take advantage of?) Norm on a daily basis, and I know how much heart and soul -- not to mention technical prowess -- he brings to so many endeavors. A technology such as DocBook, whose value depends on community uptake, needs more than mere technical contributions; it needs a champion. Norm has been DocBook's champion and much more for several years, and his efforts have helped to make it one of the most successful applications on the planet. Thanks, Norm, and when you're done reading this message, could you just help me out with this question I have over here?... Eve --------------------------------------------------------------------- From: "Michael P. Urban" <Michael.P.Urban@jpl.nasa.gov> Docbook is indispensable, and much of its value is the result of Norm's hard work. "Thank you, Norm" barely covers it. --------------------------------------------------------------------- From: camille <camille@mandrakesoft.com> When I entered the world of technical publication about two years ago, I first discovered a great tool called DocBook. DocBook allowed our documentation department to get rid of a dusty system while directly jumping to a next-generation documentation system. It was a big jump and the decision to take it was greatly due to the strong support and the very active development of the tools. It quickly showed up that a single man was behind all that. I say a single man, but I've been wondering more than once if there was not more than one people named "Norman Walsh"... One having a "real" job at Sun, another one answering mails on mailing lists, another one as a W3C active member, yet another one as a DocBook developer, and so on. Once i met one of the Norman Walshes, the one which gives conferences. I was very surprised to see this young and very tall hero, very much in demand, that I couldn't dare approach. Norman, Mandrake Linux publications and many people working there are heavily indebted to you, we hope this little blurb tells you how much we appreciate your noble and generous contribution to open-source and free-software movements, as well as your indefectible availability for solving our own problems. Norman, merci. Camille Bignis, MandrakeSoft, Documentation Project --------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Fredrik Svensson <fred@ludd.luth.se> Dear Mr Walsh. I have been interested in DocBook and followed the list for a long time now. I used DocBook to produce my Master Thesis, and it worked beautifully. I still use the docbook for all kinds of computer documentation. Since I use only Unix/Linux computers this is a very clean way for me to handle all documentation I need. I can easily generate pdf or html. I use the slides.dtd together with programs like Dia and gnuplot to make presentations in a quick and easy maner. Much if not all of my documentation system has switched from LaTeX to DocBook. Thank you for all your contributions!! Fredrik Svensson Swedish Student --------------------------------------------------------------------- From: "Gilmour, John" <John.Gilmour@fanucrobotics.com> Thanks Norm! You have impacted more individuals and companies than you will ever know. We appreciated you and all of your efforts. John Gilmour --------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Trevor Jenkins <trevor.jenkins@suneidesis.com> > A BIG THANK YOU I agree. He's given tirelessly to the DocBook community over the years. Always offers sensible advice---even when the question is stupid, like so many of mine. Always accepts bug reports in his stylesheets with good grace and provides a fix. Regards, Trevor --------------------------------------------------------------------- From: David Cramer <dcramer@broadjump.com> Great idea. An online surprise party. Well, words hardly seem adequate, but I'm short on cash so they'll have to do. I'm pretty sure that if it weren't for DocBook and its community--neither of which would be viable without all of the work Norm has done--I wouldn't enjoy my job. It's so clearly the right way to do documentation, but it couldn't exist without this community and its leader. Your energy, patience, and responsiveness are all just amazing. So, <emphasis>Thank You</emphasis> Norm! Be seeing you ;-) --------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Jirka Kosek <jirka@kosek.cz> Norm, DocBook and DocBook stylesheets are substantial and excellent outcome of your hard work. Me and many others are appreciating and using it every day. This would be enough to call you our hero, guru and whatever. But you are still able to find time and strength to answer questions of many DocBook users. Without your help I will never be able to use DocBook with Czech and thus DocBook at all. So thanks again. Jirka Kosek --------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Gerrit Kuilder <gkuilder@portalyx.com> I have nothing nice to say about Norman Walsh. other than: Without him my knowledge about XML and the Docbook dtd would be non existant. We use the Docbook dtd and XML for Publishing Software we sell, which is now 'highly xml aware' (for lack of a better buzzword). I have learned the new xml capabilities with the help of DocBook. The Docbook mailing lists and the frequent postings of Norm have been a great help for achieving a high level of expertise and knowledge. Regards, Gerrit Kuilder --------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Steffen Maier <Steffen.Maier@studserv.uni-stuttgart.de> <quote role="thanks-to-Norm"> Hello Norm, I'm gonna make it short because I assume there will be numerous others that would like to say something. Thanks for your commitment to DocBook. You are always helpful, be it in thoroughly answering questions or improving DocBook always considering possible side effects. I appreciate your work very much. DocBooking with such an invaluable support makes lots of fun even if I sometimes have a hard time keeping the constantly evolving stuff working ;-). From a happy DocBooker, Steffen Maier. </quote> --------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Francesco Giacomini <francesco.giacomini@cnaf.infn.it> Hello. I don't have anything special to say, apart from a big "thank you", nevertheless I feel I have to say it explicitly. Francesco. --------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Matthew Braun <mbraun@urbana.css.mot.com> >A BIG THANK YOU Indeed, a HUGE "Thank You"! Thanks for working on the DTDs, on the "DuckBook", on the stylesheets (especially on the stylesheets!), for the guidance and advice on the mailing lists. DocBook wouldn't be where and what it is today without your efforts. m@ (Matt Braun) --------------------------------------------------------------------- From: "M.-A. DARCHE" <ma.darche@cynode.org> For Norman : Your dedication, kindness and availability are a serious driving force for the DocBook effort. Also many thanks for your other open source projects and tools (diffmk, catalog support for Java, website, slides) which make life in the world of XML easier. I hope we will soon witness the true advent of DocBook! Be seeing you, -- Marc-Aurhle DARCHE <http://www.cynode.org> --------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Eduardo Gutentag <eduardo.gutentag@sun.com> It is a fact of life that standards, like humans, are born, go through adolescence, mature and descend into maintenance mode. DocBook was at that last stage when some years ago, with a sigh of relief born of lack of imagination, I passed to Norm the chairmanship of the OASIS DocBook TC, where he was already one of the most active members. What Norm has achieved since then is truly amazing. He certainly had the help of the TC members, as well as the prodding of the DocBook community, but given the same help and the same prodding, few people (if any) would have been able to do what Norm has done, and keep a day job too... Thank you Norm. It's both an honor and a pleasure to work with you. Eduardo Gutentag --------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Sasha Zucker <szucker@mail.mac.com> Dear Norm, Thanks for all your hard work on DocBook and for answering my newbie questions. sincerely, -- Sasha Zucker --------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Patrick Powell <papowell@astart.com> Thanks, Norm! The DOCBOOK stuff has been invaluable in my work. Patrick Powell --------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Michael Smith <smith@xml-doc.org> Norm, The peanut had George Washington Carver. Electricity, Nicola Tesla. Comic books, Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. And DocBook has you. Generations from now, as the tale of DocBook is told around the campfires, they shall speak of the "one who showed us that man and ape could live in peace-- " whoops, different tale. [Collecting my thoughts for another try...] ...they shall speak of the days when, though he was involved in many other important standards efforts, he still walked among us in the Garden, guiding development of the Law, documenting its 375+ commandments, patiently answering our questions about it, regularly adding new and really cool features to the stylesheets, and often replying to supplications from the true believers with the reassuring words: Fixed in CVS Michael Smith ------------------------------------------------------------------------ From: Steinar Bang <steinar@bang.priv.no> I've only recently started to use DocBook XML and the DocBook XSL style sheets. I'm doing it on my own initiative, to introduce DocBook XML as an alternative to writing technical documentation in MSWord. I would like to thank Norm for making this alternative be available, and for making it free! I would also like to thank him for the prompt and helpful response he seems to make to almost all postings on the docbook-apps mailinglist. - Steinar ------------------------------------------------------------------------ From: Bjorn Remseth <rmz@rmz.priv.no> Norm's contribution has been invaluable. He's made Docbook a real alternative for serious technichal document production. I've used both his documentation and his stylesheets on a daily basis for several years, and I'm simply grateful for having such good tools available. Bjxrn Remseth ------------------------------------------------------------------------ From: Rune Enggaard Jensen <rune@enggaard-lausen.dk> Hi Norm! A big thank you from Denmark. DocBook and your stylesheets are in use daily at my work, to everyone's great satisfaction. As maintainer of our local setup and customizations, I must say that your stylesheets are a source of continuous inspiration! Keep up the good(!) work!!!! Best regards Rune Enggaard ------------------------------------------------------------------------ From: Bob Stayton <bobs@caldera.com> Norm, It's a joy to work with you on DocBook stuff. Despite your being the recognized world expert on DocBook, you still listen respectfully to suggestions and treat DocBook as a community project. I've always been impressed with the quality and quantity of your output. There are few XSL stylesheets out there that exercise as much of the standard as yours. And then there is your persistence. I trolled through the old Davenport mail archives and found your name first mentioned in 1994 when you introduced your troff DocBook tools. You have been at it ever since. In "Internet Years", that amounts to an epoch. Others make significant contributions to the open source world and then move on to new projects, leaving someone else to carry on. You start new projects, but continue to carry on with DocBook. For example, how many people know that you are one of the coauthors of the actual W3C XSLT Recommendation itself? That standard was released on 16 Nov 1999, and DocBook XSL 1.0 was released on 18 Nov 1999. Coincidence? Of course not! You don't get paid for your continued good efforts, so I hope this round of electronic applause provides some compensation to keep you going. Bob Stayton 400 Encinal Street Publications Architect Santa Cruz, CA 95060 Technical Publications voice: (831) 427-7796 Caldera International, Inc. fax: (831) 429-1887 email: bobs@caldera.com
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