docbook: Updated XSL Stylesheets
Subject:
Re: Updated XSL Stylesheets
From:
Bob Stayton ####@####.####
Date:
2 Jul 2003 16:54:41 -0000
Message-Id: <20030702100903.A20294@sco.com>
On Tue, Jul 01, 2003 at 05:27:38PM -0400, Emma Jane Hogbin wrote:
> On Tue, Jul 01, 2003 at 02:15:33PM -0700, Bob Stayton wrote:
> > You are correct, it is not outputting HTML.
> > I haven't used these stylesheets, but
> > the "Making portait pages ..." messages indicates
> > it is outputting XSL-FO. Perhaps changing
> > the "/fo/" in the path to "/html/" would fix it,
> > but I don't know why the filename itself includes
> > "html" if it is putting out FO.
>
> Yup, I put the files into the wrong directory. :/ Fixed now, thanks!!
>
> Some comments on the output of HTML files:
As one of the maintainers of the DocBook XSL stylesheets,
I can confirm that they still output some older HTML tags like <b>.
The debate has been about whether or not the stylesheets should
produce usable output without requiring a CSS stylesheet.
There is a sufficiently large installed base for the stylesheets
that requiring CSS would be disruptive for some.
That said, the stylesheets now have a 'make.valid.html'
parameter whose effect will be to clean up these remaining
problems. But it is only planned and not yet implemented
in the stylesheets at this moment. Probably by the
next release.
> - the page doesn't validate as HTML or as XHTML (as per the correct
> directory). The DOCTYPE is missing from the HTML version so
> validator.w3.org doesn't even bother trying.
Right. Coming soon. But probably 4.01 Transitional,
not Strict.
> For the XHTML version
> there are namespaces put into elements that don't allow them.
This is a bug in the version of xsltproc you are using.
Try a later version.
> - output looks great in lynx
> - output in firebird-mozilla has a weird character after section
> numbers and before the text. It's a capital A with a circonflex
> (hat) accent. Also visible in the plain text output -- perhaps the
> character encoding meta information is incorrect?
> - same complaints as before re. new lines, but it's much better this
> time.
The HTML stylesheets use <xsl:output indent="no"/>
for various reasons. Unfortunately, that indent
attribute cannot be set by a runtime stylesheet parameter.
But the ldp customization could change it.
The custom xsl:output could also produce a DOCTYPE
declaration, if you like.
> - there are *many* deprecated elements being used. This is a Bad Thing
> in my opinion. A quick glance shows: b, tt and i
Yes, will be fixed by setting a 'make.valid.html' parameter.
> - there is still some HTML which could be stripped out, I think. For
> example: <div class="titlepage"><div><div><h3 class="title">
> <a id="id2800871"></a>8.1. Unpack</h3></div></div><div>
> What are the extra <div>s for?
The DocBook stylesheets have a pretty complex system for
generating headings, using a general "title page" system
that provides a lot of optional control. It leads to nested
structures, some of which may not appear in your output.
> - again: extra HTML around:
> <b class="command">make <i class="parameter"><tt>menuconfig</tt></i></b>
> why not just call it <span class="parameter"> and use CSS to style
> the font to a monospaced font?
> - <div class="blockquote"><table border="0" width="100%"
> cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="blockquote" summary="Block
> quote">
> Argh!! Why not just use the HTML element "blockquote"?
The HTML table is used to format the placement of the
attribution child of the DocBook blockquote element.
If you don't use an attribution, you should get the HTML
<blockquote> element.
> - <div class="sect1" lang="en" xml:lang="en">
> are sections some times different languages than the parent
> document? I don't think this is necessary as my guess is that
> documents are always written in a single document. Why not simply
> put the language in the <html> start tag and be done with it?
As far as I can tell, there are only two places where the
DocBook XSL stylesheets output a 'lang' attribute, for a
blockquote and foreignphrase if it carries a lang or
xml:lang attribute. They don't output lang on the
root element, and they don't output xml:lang at all.
I don't know where that's coming from.
> I haven't worked a lot with XSLT so maybe the problems are in nwalsh's
> files, and maybe they're in the revised tldp files? Being an HTML snob I
> would not be happy with this output based on the work that I put into (1)
> the original HTML document I wrote (2) the amount of effort I put into
> converting my HTML file into docbook.
>
> But those are just one person's comments. :)
I'd like to work with you toward getting the DocBook
stylesheets in better HTML compliance, when the
new parameter is implemented.
--
Bob Stayton 400 Encinal Street
Publications Architect Santa Cruz, CA 95060
Technical Publications voice: (831) 427-7796
The SCO Group fax: (831) 429-1887
email: ####@####.####
