Re: Completely confused

[Gary Lawrence Murphy <garym@canada.com>]

>>>>> "D" == David Lloyd <lloy0076@rebel.net.au> writes:

    D> I agree with all your points, however getting Jade to produce
    D> something that is RENDERABLE has been a nightmare for me...

    D> * the bullets dissappear TOTALLY from RTF ...

Jade is not the problem, Jade is only the SGML translation engine.
Your problem is with the stylesheets and the backends you have
attached to Jade.

Stylesheets are the perfect open source accessory: The tools can be
first class, standard and free, and the means to configure them for
specific effects are so arcane that you need an expert.  You should
see the job offers in industry for DSSSL and XSL expertise!  Better
paying than Java!

Cygnus has created a fair set of DSSSL stylesheets for DocBook.  Not
perfect by any means and new bugs are discovered daily, but they are
free and GPL (I believe). You are completely free to create your own
stylesheets from scratch or to correct, modify and/or extend the
Cygnus stylesheets at will.  It's what standards based open source
free software is all about.

    D> You mentioned that I might be able to render DocBook without
    D> Jade. 

I don't think I mentioned this, but it is possible: You can use
DocBook XML instead of the SGML version, and then use XML tools like
Cocoon or Xerces &c to render it.  You can get this version of DocBook
from docbook.org

DocBook XML probably has more promise in the long run, but right now,
the free tools are still primative; IMHO the SGML kit is more complete
and easier to maintain (but maybe because I am an old Lisp programmer
and DSSSL makes more sense to me than XSL)

    D> ... or maybe even if you can work out what's happening with my
    D> blasted TeX installation...

Ah, yes, the Great Dark DocBook Secret: In traditional free-software
based DocBook SGML, all print backends have their roots in a broken
backend program called jadetex.

After numerous complaints about this and that, the author of jadetex
came forward on the docbook-apps mailing list to explain that he never
intended for jadetex to be anything more than a proof of concept, that
it was horribly broken, and that he no longer had interest, the
resources or need to maintain it.  It is an orphaned open source
program, in bad need of a complete re-write.  Volunteers are most
welcome ;)

    D> He who conquers shall have this heritage 
    D> And I will be his God and he shall be my son

Exactly ;)

-- 
Gary Lawrence Murphy <garym@linux.ca>: office voice/fax: 01 519 4222723
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