Re: Please Vote for Templates

[Martin WHEELER <mwheeler@startext.co.uk>]

On Sat, 13 May 2000, Philippe Latu wrote:

> I would like to submit a kind of poll about LinuxDoc/DocBook (*Doc*) Templates.

Good idea.  Let's all fly with it.


> 1./ SGML/XML CATALOG
> --------------------
> Actually, the first main difficulty when beginning to compose docs is to obtain
> a working CATALOG. As many others I began with the cygnus packages and 8 months
> later I'm in terrible mess with DTDs & Stylesheets everywhere.

Snap! (And make that 8 *years*, not months.)  Three years ago I started to
write a user's guide to setting up a wholly Open Source Unix(Linux)-based
SGML editing workstation for use in academic institutions (nothing to do
with Linux Documentation, but TEI); which I had to abandon when I was
suddenly hospitalised.  By the time I was out, I had other things to do.
This is still a worthwhile project for someone to pick up on.
(Even better for this list would be a full user's guide for LDP writers,
explaining clearly and carefully how to swop DTDs in and out of whatever
editor you're using, according to your desired target document.)

My major point then was that the various packages available left catalogs
and DTDs all over the shop, and that what was needed was a *standard*
location for all the various bits and pieces. (Nothing to do with
file-system standards -- just something common that all SGML editors can
get used to.)

So my vote here is --  YES.  Go for it.  Start the discussion.

(On my present system, DTDs are all found in /usr/lib/sgml  -- but
thereafter I have doubled-up copies, first in /usr/lib/sgml/<dtd_name>,
and then again in /usr/lib/sgml/dtd/...  What's current thinking amongst
LDP writers/editors as to a "canonical" site?  My personal preference is
for /usr/lib/sgml/<dtd_name>  --  for no particular reason; I've just
got used to it.) 


> All users need a distro independant CATALOG Template.

Probably.  Or a good guide to editing what you've got, to point to where
everything else lives.
My vote  =  YES


> This morning I posted about the mix between sgmltools & DocBook.

Why?  It's pointless.   Readers of this list just have to get used to the 
fact that:

sgml == SGML == debiandoc == linuxdoc == DocBook == Buddha knows what else.

Personally, I've given up.  Nobody seems to want to take the
responsibility of biting the bullet, and renaming once and for all those
abominably misnamed packages causing the semantic confusion between
generic term [SGML] and particular instance [debiandoc; linuxdoc; DocBook].


> Is it possible to add a HOWTO-HOWTO section : Howto Build a *Doc* CATALOG + a
> downloadable fully commented CATALOG Template ?

Start from man install-sgmlcatalog?
Then read contents of:
/usr/lib/sgml/catalog  or  /etc/sgml.catalog


> 2./ *Doc* Template
> ------------------
> Many beginners could take advantage of a Howto Template (skeleton) with standard
> Header + disclaimer + tag groups and so on.

Go for it.  YES


> Is it possible to add a HOWTO-HOWTO section : DocBook Template Use of Entities ?

What's wrong with Norm Walsh's Definitive Guide?


> Here it is ! What do you think of it

Go for it.
-- 
Martin Wheeler         -         StarTEXT - Glastonbury - BA6 9PH - England
[1] mwheeler@startext.co.uk                      http://www.startext.co.uk/
[2] mwheeler@startext.f9.co.uk


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