Re: Using docbook

Subject: Re: Using docbook
From: Bill Lawrence <lawrence -at- mayaviz -dot- com>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
Date: Wed, 20 Jul 2005 13:58:36 -0400


Kate,

I've built Docbook-based single source systems at three companies (including my current employer), and it is an excellent choice for what you want to do. Docbook is indeed a somewhat complex markup scheme, but remember that you won't use most of the tags. They are there to support a wide range of documents, including SDK guides, command reference guides, and the like. You'll mostly use the structural elements (book, chapter, section) the various list-type elements, procedure elements, and tables. Don't go the simplified Docbook route unless you're sure that it contains everything you need. You may find yourself very limited in what you can do.

All of our writers used specialized editors. XMLSpy, Epic, XMetal, and Syntext are great choices. All of those editors will "guide" writers by showing what tagging choices are valid at any location in the document.

Epic has a great add-on formatter for PDF and online help, but it's expensive. In all three systems that I've built, we've used the Modular Docbook Stylesheets (which are open-source and free) along with the XEP PDF formatter (which is quite inexpensive). We currently use that set of tools to create PDF, RTF, HTML, and Oracle Help output formats. We bought the server version of XEP ($2,300), but you can buy single CPU versions of the formatter for around $200.

What you should know is simply that you'll need someone to set up the tools and do any customizations that you require for formatting in any of the output media. This requires the ability to write XSLT code, the ability to understand XML FO (formatting objects), and a reasonable grasp of a scripting language such as Perl, Python, etc. You can do without having someone with those skills if you buy a turnkey solution from one of the companies that make editors, but such solutions are expensive.

You'll also want some sort way of storing and versioning the XML source. You can buy a content management system, or you can use your company's source code control system, such as CVS, Perforce, MKS, etc. I've always used the source code control system as it makes it easier to automate the "document build" along with the code build.

Cheers,

Bill Lawrence

Kate Stout wrote:


Hi all -
I'd like to single source several documents, that my company plans to produce. There will be a User Guide, a Tutorial, and possibly some other manuals. Some material is reused across the various documents, so that would be shared amungst the documents. Some documents will be produced as pdf, others as an web in html, and some may be both.

I'm considering using creating the document components in docbook, then using xslt transforms to create the various required output formats.
Bunch of questions
1) Has anyone here used the docbook DTD before, & if yes, what was the experience like? I'm a little concerned because it's a fairly complex markup scheme.
2) What tools have you used to do the documentation editing? Did you "handcode" or use a specialized editor?
3) What tools did you use for xml transforms?
4) Tell me what else I should know, I'm sure there are questions I haven't thought to ask ;-).



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References:
Using docbook: From: Kate Stout

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