Re: [docbook] Toolchain for beginner?

["Bob Stayton" <bobs@sagehill.net>]

Hi,
If you need line numbers in programlistings, you should probably use Saxon. 
There is some help in this chapter of my online book for setting up Saxon 
and the extensions:

http://www.sagehill.net/docbookxsl/ToolsSetup.html

See the sections title "Installing Saxon" and "Using Saxon"

Bob Stayton
Sagehill Enterprises
bobs@sagehill.net

--------------------------------------------------
From: "Bob Plantz" <rgplantz@outlook.com>
Sent: Tuesday, April 09, 2013 12:01 PM
To: <docbook@lists.oasis-open.org>
Subject: [docbook] Toolchain for beginner?

> I hope this is the proper list for my questions.
>
> I am almost there but cannot seem to get a good toolchain for writing a 
> programming book with docbook. I have written, and self-published 
> (lulu.com), a 568-page programming book using LaTeX, so I'm comfortable 
> with markup languages, etc.
>
> My requirements (desires) are to produce three versions: online (html), 
> ereader (epub), and paperback (pdf). I learned from my current book that 
> LaTeX does not have a reasonable path to html (and thus, not to epub).
>
> Another important point is that I want to be able to include external 
> files (that contain code) when processing the text. I like being able to 
> test each program that I include in my book. Copy and paste leads to 
> errors, and I dislike books that have programs that don't work.
>
> I prefer doing this on my Ubuntu 12.10 but am willing to do it on my 
> Windows 8 installation. This book will be free or very low cost, so I do 
> not want to buy commercial software to write it. (I own a copy of MS Word, 
> but previous experience suggests it is useless for this application.)
>
> Since I'm new to docbook, my take is that I should start with 5.0.
>
> I have gotten xsltproc to do what I want, except that it does not allow me 
> to use linenumbering with my code listings. This version of Ubuntu 
> installs libxslt 10126. Perhaps I need the latest version?
>
> Saxon and Xalan both give me error messages. Sorry, I forget what they 
> were. I uninstalled them, thinking that I probably installed the wrong 
> versions. For example, I just ran across 
> (http://www.microhowto.info/howto/process_an_xml_document_using_an_xslt_stylesheet.html) 
> that seems to indicate I should install Saxon-B.
>
> I have also done some preliminary work with Pandoc, which seems to do what 
> I want so far. But it's simplicity causes me to worry that it will be 
> limiting down the road. I also believe that docbook's use of xml makes 
> more sense, at least in the long run.
>
> I feel like I'm very close, but I'm stuck. Most of the documentation that 
> I have found is out of date or incomplete (for a beginner). For example, 
> everything I've found on 5.0 assumes that I am familiar with 4.x. It 
> doesn't seem to make sense that I should set everything up for 4.x, learn 
> how to use that, and then convert to 5.0.
>
> So I wonder if anybody can point a beginner like me to a good source for 
> helping me to get going on actually writing a book. As when I learned 
> LaTeX, I'm sure there will be many learning experiences as I write. But I 
> would like to avoid taking too many dead end paths.
>
> --Bob
>
>
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