discuss: DocBook vs LinuxDoc (was LDP Incorporate ...)
Subject:
Re: [discuss] DocBook vs LinuxDoc (was LDP Incorporate ...)
From:
David Lawyer ####@####.####
Date:
6 Nov 2007 06:15:47 +0000
Message-Id: <20071106061507.GC1972@davespc>
On Sun, Nov 04, 2007 at 11:23:32PM -0500, Eric S. Raymond wrote:
> David Lawyer ####@####.####
> > A very important project would be to merge LinuxDoc sgml and DocBook
> > sgml which would have a subset just as easy to use as LinuxDoc. It's
> > use would go far beyond the bounds of LDP. It's a big task including
> > new software smart enough to find and add all the missing tags (but
> > don't show them to the user unless the user wants to see
> > them).
>
> I was, for a short time after the previous one let them drop, the
> principal maintainer of the old LinuxDoc tools.
>
> I'll say now what I said then. The tools were a kluge, and the format was
> inferior to DocBook. Moving was, and remains, the right decision. IMO no
> purpose at all would be served by trying to revive LinuxDoc.
There were (and still are) kluges in the code but for the user it was
simple to use and easy to learn. The Users doesn't care about kludges
so long as it works OK.
I just tested for a few bugs I found in LinuxDoc several years ago and
they seem to have been fixed. Some bugs were fixed in the last year.
LDP never stopped using LinuxDoc and our Howto Generator allows
someone to write a HowTo interactively with the result in LinuxDoc.
I think that LinuxDoc is not much more difficult than the markup that
people use to do wikis and that it might be better if wikis used
LinuxDoc since it's clear what is a tag and what isn't since tags are
enclosed in <> brackets. With wiki markup there are ** tags and
underlining tags, etc. used as markup so that someone looking at it
may not realize what is the content and what is the markup.
What is really needed is to merge LinuxDoc with DocBook which would
make it much easier to create DocBook articles. With LinuxDoc one
needs no special editor or word processor. Just use whatever word
processor or editor you already know and create several macros so you
seldom need to type in any tags. When I start typing a doc, I just
start with the header of an existing doc and using the vim editor,
change the title, date, and abstract. Then I use macros I've created
like ;s for <sect1> and ;i for <item> etc. I spend less than 1% of my
time doing the format but the benefits are substantial since a table
of contents gets created automatically. It's easier than just plain
text.
The Debian project is requiring the use of debian-doc-sgml which
appears to be similar to LinuxDoc. They will not accept DocBook and
claim that they don't accept LinuxDoc since it's unmaintained but
that's not so. The person who has actually been maintaining it isn't
the official maintainer and does what Debian calls "non-maintainer
uploads".
David Lawyer
