Re: [docbook] DocBook Fink report

[Rich Morin <rdm@cfcl.com>]

At 12:44 PM +0900 10/6/05, Michael Smith wrote:
>Caveat: I would guess that page is probably not up to date. But
>perhaps you can volunteer to update it after you're done getting
>your kit set up. :-)
>
>>    psgml           - couldn't find it!!!

Assuming that I'm successful, and that we can finesse the little
"immmutable page" notice at the bottom of the page, I'd be quite
happy to do so.

>Bad place to start.
>
>The best place to start now is with Bob Stayton's "DocBook XSL:
>The Complete Guide" -
>
>   http://www.sagehill.net/docbookxsl/index.html
>
>That is up to date and will tell you pretty much everything you
>need to know.
>
>... If you are starting fresh with DocBook, you should use the
>XSL-based toolchain, following the steps in Bob's book.

Let me get this straight.  I should ignore a document that tells
me that I can process a docbook file into (say) HTML with a single
command.  Instead, I should fish my way through 20+ pages of dense
installation and configuration information in Bob's book, trying to
figure out which instructions might be applicable to the programs
that I (supposedly) just installed.  I begin to see the problem.

Well, there are some things I can determine:

   % which pdftex
   /sw/bin/pdftex
   % which xsltproc
   /sw/bin/xsltproc

I look into installing xmlto, but it requires a different getopt
than OSX has.  I try installing the suggested getopt, but it does
not build on OSX.  The problem becomes a bit clearer.

I then look into "Docbook XSL", trying to find a "Hello World",
such as the one in the "Crash Course".  No such luck; instead, I
find a long-winded chapter on "XML catalogs".  Moan.


The "Crash Course" may be out of date, but it HAS THE RIGHT IDEA.
A newby needs an easy way to get things set up, determine that the
needed commands are all present, and get some plausible results.
THEN, s/he can be told that there are better (though more complex)
ways to do things.

So, what I'd like is a short example file and some equally short
commands to turn it into HTML and PDF.  Can someone supply these,
so that I can put them into the wiki?

-r
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