Where to start? (Newbie Q's)

[Russell Hires <rhires@earthlink.net>]

Hello all,

Here I am, wanting to write some docs (or work on some that are already out 
there), and I can't find any decent documentation on how to write 
documentation! So, naturally, I've got a few questions:

1. I see that sgml is the way to go. But in my research of sgml, I don't get 
it: I know that it is a tag language like html, (okay, I actually know that 
html is a sub-set of sgml), but I don't know what the tags are. 

2. I don't know what the difference is between DocBook and Debiandoc-sgml...

3. When downloading stuff via cvs, will that answer some of my questions? 

4. I  looked at my /usr/share/doc/sgml-stuff, but it isn't making too much 
sense to me. I'm getting the feeling that DSSSL is really how the markups are 
defined (?) But where would I find out what they are?

5. There must be 10 different environments for editing sgml. I realize that 
it's more a personal choice and so forth, but I'm wondering about all the 
formats and such... 

Thanks for the help. 

Russell