Re: offtopic: which text language to use?
On Thu, 20 Sep 2001, Julio Merino wrote:
> First, I think I'll go and learn SGML Docbook. I'm very familiar with HTML,
> tought. I don't think it will be very difficult.
>
> As you say, latex2html provides a good output, but ugly... What I want is
> to be able to customize that output as much as I want, to make a more
> beautiful HTML document. Also, I want my LaTeX output to be customizable
> too, so I can setup headers and the like.
>
> What I mainly need to write is a long school "work/report". Apart from
> containing lots of text, I want to include images in a flexible way,
> and to be able to define chapters, sections and the like. This is what
> I need.
>
> I hope Docbook will be enough, isn't it?
Docbook, exactly like HTML was meant to be, does NOT allow you to tweak
appearance. The purpose of text processors is to shield you from
lay-out chores, which are automated. Text processors do force you to
create a document in a consistent, structured way with uniform final
appearence.
If you want to customize the HTML output, you can use stylesheets.
For an ugly example of presentations written in DocBook, converted to
HTML, and customized with stylesheets, look at my homepage:
http://www.xs4all.nl/~tpeters/LinuxCursus/LinuxCapitaSelecta.html
If you want to design printed output, use a wordprocessor. MS-Word does
in fact allow you to make use of and define styles for all kinds of
structure elements, but does not enforce you to use them consistently; it
does allow infinite customization.
--
#>!$!%(@^%#%*(&(#@#*$^@^$##*#@&(%)@**$!(&!^(#((#&%!)%*@)(&$($$%(@#)&*!^$)^@*^@)
Tom "thriving on chaos" Peters
NL-1062 KD nr 149 tel. +31-204080204
Amsterdam e-mail tpeters@xs4all.nl
Reply to: