Re: Docbook, MathML and Debian

[Brian May <bam@debian.org>]

>>>>> "Joost" == Joost Kooij <joost@topaz.mdcc.cx> writes:

    Joost> Informative to the stooped newbie sgml user, eh?  I share
    Joost> the pain.
';-)
 
    >> isn't &gt; how you specify '>'? and isn't &lt; how you specify
    >> '<' in XML? I can never seem to find these documented when I
    >> need them. Is '&' specified &amp;???
    >> 
    >> Jade also gets confused and prints <arg
    >> choice="req">stuff</arg> exactly the same way as <arg
    >> choice="opt">stuff</arg>.
    >> 
    >> However, this produces the best results so far.
    >> 
    >> 
    >> 
    >> I tried with xalan, too, but it couldn't even find the DTD.
    >> (note: I have deliberately refrained from specifying the XSL
    >> file).
 
    Joost> This might be because you aren't including the preamble
    Joost> before the xml input file.  This gives it a proper sgml
    Joost> declaration, I think.

Later: I changed the command to jade (as the previous command was
flushed out of my history, and I can't remember what is was now...),
and everything works, using version 4.1.2 of docbook. Wow!

jade -o html -t sgml \
        -d /usr/share/sgml/docbook/stylesheet/dsssl/modular/html/docbook.dsl \
        /usr/share/sgml/declaration/xml.dcl guard.xml

Only thing is, I would assume this would write its output into the
html directory. It uses the current directory instead,

This was with this DOCTYPE:

<!DOCTYPE book PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.1.2//EN"
               "docbook/dtd/xml/4.1.2/docbookx.dtd">

I only encountered several errors which really were my fault (used
<replace></replace> instead of <replaceable>...</replaceable>).

    Joost> I am not an expert in these matters, but from my vantage
    Joost> point, the whole sgml/xml suite appears to be in a rut,
    Joost> unfortunately.  It badly needs some form of revival
    Joost> operation.  Any volunteers?  Even documenting what package
    Joost> combinations are needed for specific aims would be an
    Joost> improvement.

Yes. I think the examples are badly
lacking. /usr/share/doc/docbook-xml/, contains examples, but no code
to process them (only validate).

Other examples I have looked at, and suddenly realized they were SGML,
not XML...
-- 
Brian May <bam@debian.org>