Re: docBook or latex

["Douglas A. Tutty" <dtutty@porchlight.ca>]

On Mon, Aug 27, 2007 at 10:29:38AM +0100, abdelkader belahcene wrote:
> I want to write big document (say reports) ( sometimes with  math
> symboles and functions, not always).
> Which is better and in which cases, I have to use docbook or latex??
> 

Considering that this is exactly what latex was designed for, I would
use latex.  AFAIK, docbook is designed for creating manuals that can be
turned into ps, pdf, text, or html without using external packages or
requiring a huge meta-package install.  Since there are readily
available (as debian packages) ways to turn latex into html, I use latex
for everything.  

I think its also more portable.  Latex will always be latex.  If in the
future you need docbook, you can turn the latex into docbook (I think
there's an app for this).  You can turn it into absolutley anything.

Also, there's the visual quality of the output.  I don't think there's
anything that produces nicer output than Tex.

So to summarize:   Use Latex.  If you target audience needs docbook so
that they can encorporate it into their own docbook, then turn the latex
into docbook.  Otherwise, give them latex, dvi, and whatever other
formats they want.

Doug.