Re: sgml tools help

["Greg Ferguson" <gferg@hoop.timonium.sgi.com>]

On Apr 4,  7:21pm, Tom Fawcett wrote:
> Subject: sgml tools help
>
> Are there instructions anywhere that explain, start to finish, how to
> install a set of working tools for converting DocBook documents into
> (tex,pdf,html,txt)?

This is (still) being worked on. It's badly needed. I believe
Jorge is going to fold it into his Using DocBook HOWTO (but I
can't say specifically).

Currently we have a HOWTO HOWTO, a Using DocBook HOWTO (under
development), and a Guide Submission HOWTO. I think we need to
consolidate this into one easily-maintainable Author's Guide
(or Author's HOWTO).

Does that seem like the correct approach?


> The old sgmltools package provided backends like sgml2ps.  The current
> sgmltools RPM includes various binaries (eg jade, jadetex, nsgmls,
> sgmltools), but no mention in the documentation of backends to produce
> final output.
>
> The OSWG provides a pointer to a working set of tools
> (ftp://sourceware.cygnus.com:/pub/docbook-tools/).  These include
> db2XXX backends for DocBook, eg db2ps, from the stylesheets package.
> But there's no txt backend, and from the package listing that Greg
> Ferguson's posted I assume these aren't the tools the LDP uses anyway.

The "guts" of the packages are the same (jade/docbook/dsssl), but
the Cygnus tools provide better wrappers to do as you describe.
I had to build my own wrappers (with assistance from Jorge Godoy;
examining what he had available).

The 2txt backend is simply a lynx dump from HTML. In the wrappers,
we create (using jade) a singular HTML file and individual/chunked
HTML files (I specify SGML catalog files in the SGML_CATALOG_FILES
env variable which I set inside my script) :

"chunked" HTML files:

    jade -t sgml -i html -d <pth>/docbook.dsl <howto>.sgml

singular HTML file:

    jade -t sgml -i html -V nochunks -d <pth>/docbook.dsl <howto>.sgml

The individual files ("chapter" or "sections") are what are used
to view/browse in the LDP. The singular/large HTML file is used
solely in the production of the plain text, PDF and PostScript
variants. Working off the singular file ensures correctness in
the embedded links, and provides a much cleaner presentation in
these variants (no "next","previous","top" - breaks strewn in the
middle of pdf/postscript/plain text documents).

Plain text:

	lynx -dump howto_html_file > howto.txt

PDF/PS (using the htmldoc s/w):

	htmldoc --size letter -t pdf -f howto.pdf howto_html_file
	htmldoc --size letter -t ps -f howto.pdf howto_html_file

> I've looked at two or three tutorial introductions to DocBook.
> They seem to mention the software without specifying how to get
> it set up and working such that LDP authors can convert documents
> into the LDP standard formats.

The available documentation is indeed "sparse". I hope through a
HOWTO, or by folding this info into an existing HOWTO, we can
address this.

Feedback is requested.

best regards,

-- 
Greg Ferguson     - s/w engr / mtlhd         | gferg@sgi.com
SGI Tech Pubs     - http://techpubs.sgi.com  | 
Linux Doc Project - http://www.linuxdoc.org  |


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